Friends and Heroes
by Ssgtsplatter
Summary: The kids may have survived Halloween and are even entertaining the idea of being friends but Dick Hardly still has one trick left up his sleeve. While Dick didn't plan on destroying them that night, he was creating something to destroy them in the long run. A monster. A monster that will force them to make life changing choices sooner rather than later.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey what's up guys. I've finally got the first chapter done and I should be able to write the rest of it fairly easily. Just remember, this story is being built from the ground up and is not based off of a Scooby-Doo movie so it will take longer for me to post follow up chapters.**

 **Ok, let's go. Chapter 1.**

* * *

Two days ago, on November 6th around 3:30pm, the girls and the boys bumped into each other in Townsville park. It had been about a week since what happened on Halloween and they needed to talk to one another about what happened that night and how they felt about it as well as each other. Since that day, both the girls and the boys have been giving the possibility of being friends, or at the very least peacefully coexisting, some thought but they weren't committed to the idea yet. The boys weren't committed yet because there was still some small shred of their old pride saying that girls were lame and sissies, while the girls were waiting to see if the boys could change their ways first before they got too optimistic. However, unbeknownst to them as they thought about these things, Dick Hardly still had a plan in place to destroy them all and it wouldn't be long before it made itself known to them.

 _Saturday, November 7, 11:46 pm._

 _In a cell at the police station, Dick was quietly laughing to himself. What the city thought of his actions now was irrelevant because even though he wasn't seeking the girls out specifically that night, he did have plans to destroy them at some point in the future and the RRB would've been icing on the cake. Dick checked the power level of the life support system on his exo suit, which read 'power system failing'. He grinned in triumph, he had successfully sabotaged the emergency back-up power. He wasn't going to give the city the pleasure of sentencing him. Looking at the recording device he held in his hand for the girls and the boys to see, his only regret was that he wouldn't be around to see their demise first hand._

 _As his labored breathing became slower and slower, he said out loud, "I...will...have...the last...laugh." Dick Hardly then took his final breathe and let out the evilest of laughs before finally becoming still._

* * *

 _November 8, early morning._

Officer Perez was taking food to Dick's cell. As he was walking, he thought the monster didn't deserve any food whatsoever for what he tried to do to the PPG and even the RRB on Halloween. Granted, the RRB were a menace but they were still children and the way Dick tried to kill them all was unacceptable. But as Perez was thinking about not giving food to Dick, he realized that it would make him just as bad a person as Dick himself by making someone suffer a slow death and he'd be damned if he ended up anything like the bastard.

As Perez walked into the cell block where Dick was being held, he passed Officer Clark and gave him a nod.

"Good morning Clark."

"Morning Perez."

"Everything been quiet here?"

"Eh, more or less, yeah. The usual whining and moaning of 'I don't deserve to be here' and other crap like that. Surprisingly, the one who's been the most quiet is Dick. I haven't heard a peep out of him since last night."

Perez scoffed. "Well, how considerate of him not to prattle on and on about how the Puffs and the Ruffs are just 'things' and not children." He said in a sarcastic tone.

Clark narrowed his eyes in disgust and said, "No kidding. What's the mindset of someone who thinks like that?"

Perez shook his head. "I don't know Clark and I hope I never find out."

Clark nodded in agreement. "Good point."

"Well, I've got to give Dick his Breakfast now."

Clark nodded. "Yeah, go ahead."

Perez walked up to Dick's cell and banged hard on the door while sliding the food under it through the gap at the bottom.

"Hey Hardly, breakfast!" Perez said in a harsh tone.

But Dick didn't respond. Perez tried again.

"Hey Dick, I said breakfast. Get up!"

Dick still didn't move.

Raising an eyebrow, Perez called back to Clark. "Hey Clark, can you come here for a second?"

Clark walked over and asked, "What's the matter?"

"Dick isn't responding. I'm going to go in and see if I can wake him up. I want you to stand at the door and if he does anything stupid, taze him."

Clark nodded and drew his tazer as Perez unlocked the cell and walked in. He walked up to Dick, who was sitting in the corner of his cell in what looked like an uncomfortable position, and kneeled down to get a better look at him. Perez then grabbed Dick's shoulder and shook him saying, "Dick wake up!"

But Dick didn't wake up, instead, he slumped over to the side and hit the ground with a thud. Perez and Clark both blinked in surprise before Perez reached out and checked Dick's Pulse. His eyes widened in shock as he said in disbelief, "He's dead!"

Clark took a step back in shock and said, "WHAT?!"

"I said, he's dead." Perez then turned around to face Clark. "Go get the chief, now!"

Meanwhile, the chief had just walked into the station for the day and was on his way to his office when officer Clark came up to him with a stricken look on his face.

"Chief!"

The chief turned toward him and asked, "Clark, what's the matter?"

"It's Dick Hardly sir. Perez and I just found him dead in his cell."

"What?!"

The Chief and officer Clark went to the cell block and saw Perez talking to 2 other officers outside of Dick's cell.

"Perez, what Happened?"

Perez turned toward the chief and said, "I was giving him his breakfast sir but he didn't respond to anything I said, so, with Clark covering me from the door with his tazer in case Dick did anything stupid, I went into his cell and shook his shoulder to wake him up and that's when he fell over. I checked his pulse immediately afterwards and discovered he was dead."

The chief then asked the group, "Who was the last person to see Dick alive?"

Clark raised his hand. "That would be me sir. It was last night at 10:30 I believe, and as I walked by, I saw him writing something on a piece of paper. I asked him what he was doing but he just told me to shove off. When I walked back through about an hour later, he was just sitting in the corner with this evil grin on his face. He was still alive then but he seemed to be having a hard time breathing." Clark then rubbed his brow in disappointment at himself and said, "I didn't think anything of it at the time, but now, he was obviously dying by the time I walked back through."

Perez looked back over at Dick's body and noticed he had something in his hand.

"Chief, look at this."

The chief walked over and opened Dick's hand to find a strange device wrapped in a piece of paper.

The chief raised an eyebrow and asked, "What's this thing and where was he hiding it? I thought we confiscated everything from him except the exo suit since it was the only thing keeping him alive."

Clark then said, "Maybe he was hiding it inside the suit sir."

The chief opened the paper wrapped around the device and saw Dick had wrote a message. It said, 'This device holds a recording for the PPG and the RRB to see. If they want to have a chance to live, they will watch it.'

The chief narrowed his eyes in anger as Perez asked, "Chief, what does it say?"

The chief showed Perez the note and said, "I think Mr. Hardly has one last trick up his sleeve. Perez, I want you to take that recording and note to the Mayor's office and fill them in on what's happened. I'm going to call Professor Utonium and inform him and the girls what has happened.

Perez nodded saying, "Yes sir."

* * *

 **Hmm, I wonder what's going on? We'll just have to wait and see I guess.**

 **Anyway, I actually have a bit of this written out right now and I was originally going to have it all as one chapter but I decided to chop it up a bit. With that said, the first few chapters will be the only time I post rapidly, after that, there will be more time between posts.**

 **In any case, the story has begun and it will be eye opening for the girls and the boys to say the least.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

* * *

 _November 8, early morning._

At the Utonium household, the girls were having breakfast talking about the boys while the Professor was reading the paper.

"I wonder how different things will be when the boys become good." Said Bubbles.

"Well, they won't attack us on sight for one thing, and they may even show us more respect as well." Said Buttercup.

"That's assuming they become good in the first place girls." Said Blossom.

Buttercup and Bubbles turned to Blossom in surprise. "But, we all had a civilized and friendly conversation with them the other day." Said Bubbles.

Blossom frowned. "I know Bubbles and while that is a very good sign, it's by no means a guarantee they'll follow through with it." Looking at Bubbles downtrodden expression, Blossom sighed, saying, "Look Bubbles, I want this to happen as much as you do, believe me. Especially after finding out Brick is smarter than I thought he was, making a sophisticated observation and statement about all six of us on top of it, but we need to be cautiously optimistic about this going forward girls. We don't want to get our hopes so high only to have them crushed beyond recognition if they don't change their ways." Blossom finished solemnly.

Buttercup, listening to what her sister just said, sighed, saying, "Yeah, you're right. After all, I've said something similar before; whether the city would be willing to forgive everything the boys had done. I was letting my optimism cloud my judgment."

The Professor, who was listening to what his daughters were talking about, felt bad for them. Ever since what happened on Halloween, the girls had been trying for the better part of a week to figure out a way to help the boys make the right choice for once in their lives and, at the very least, peacefully co-exist with them and the city. But, he was also glad that Blossom and Buttercup hadn't completely lost sight of the possibility that the boys wouldn't change their ways and may even use their hopes of changing them to lure the girls into a trap. At this point, the phone out in the hallway rang so he got up to go answer it.

"But, we can still hope can't we? I mean, there's nothing wrong with hoping right?" Asked Bubbles, distressed.

Blossom shook her head. "Of course there isn't Bubbles. I'm just saying we shouldn't get our hopes too high, that's all."

Just then, the Professor exclaims loudly, "WHAT?!"

The girls snap their heads out toward the hallway where the phone is and see the Professor a little shaken and dumbfounded.

"When?" The Professor asked.

A pause, followed by, "Do we know what caused it?"

Another pause, then, "What did it say?"

This time, a longer pause and the girls were wondering who the Professor was talking to. Then the Professor said, "Yes, of course. I'll be down there as soon as I can, and I'm sure they'll come as well once the girls tell them what's happened. Yes sir, goodbye sir."

The girls exchanged looks at that; who did they have to talk too? The Professor sat back down at the table.

"Who was that Professor?" Blossom asked.

"That was the chief of police Blossom."

"What did the chief want?"

"Dick was found dead in his cell this morning."

The girls eyes widen in surprise.

"WHAT?!" Exclaimed Blossom.

"He-he's dead?" Asked Bubbles timidly.

Buttercup narrowed her eyes and said, "Good riddance. Now we won't have to listen to him call us creatures again."

"Buttercup, don't disregard life like that." Blossom said sternly.

"He disregarded our lives, why shouldn't I do the same to him?" Buttercup asked angrily.

"Because you're not like him Buttercup." Blossom replied.

Buttercup opened her mouth to respond but she didn't have anything to say to that. She grunted in disapproval before turning to look away.

"In any case, Dick apparently left a message for you all to see."

The girls exchanged looks.

"What did it say?" Asked Blossom.

The Professor shook his head. "They don't know. The message is a recording and they're trying to get it to play but something is preventing them from doing so. They want me to come down to take a look at it."

Blossom raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Wait, if they can't get the recording to play, then how do they know the message is for us?"

The Professor frowned. "Because, Dick had a hand written note with it that said, 'If the PPG and the RRB want a chance to live, they will watch this.'"

Buttercup growls. "Oh great, first he dies then he threatens us from beyond the grave. What a creep."

"Buttercup enough." Said Blossom. "I don't disagree with you, he is a creep but please just not now. Ok?" Blossom turned back toward the Professor. "So, the message is for all six of us?"

The Professor nods, saying, "Yes. I'm leaving for City Hall now, that's where they have the recording. I want you three to get dressed and see if you can get the boys to come as well."

"Alright, we'll try and convince them. See you there."

The Professor grabs his car keys and heads out the door. The girls fly upstairs and change into their day clothes. Just as they finish, they hear the Professor pull away and they fly out their windows towards the woods.

Right as they leave the house, Buttercup turns toward Blossom and asks, "You really think they'll come along?"

Blossom nods and says, "Once we tell them what's happened and who threatened us, I think they will."

* * *

 _Fuzzy's cabin, early morning._

Meanwhile, at Fuzzy's cabin deep in the woods, the boys were lounging around having their own discussion about what to do.

"Guys let's face it, we could easily be friends with them. I think we'd have to go out of our way not to be friends with them actually." Said Boomer. Ever since his talk with Bubbles in the park the other day, he's felt this need to voice his opinion about the possibility of being friends with the girls. He's been trying to subtly make this point all morning but in the end, subtly isn't his strong point so he had to be blunt with it.

Butch turned toward Boomer with an agitated look and said, "Boomer! I..." Butch stopped his outburst and then sighed and said, "Look, the treasure hunt on Halloween and meeting Dick Hardly was one thing, the talks we had in the park the other day was another, and I'll admit, it did help clear my head a little bit, but let's not get too crazy too soon. Ok?"

Boomer's eyes widen surprise. Butch not wanting to be crazy? That's a sentence he thought he's never put together in a million years. "Wow, **you** don't want to do something crazy Butch? I'm kinda expecting the sky to start falling now." Boomer finished a little amused.

Brick snickers. "Oh wow. I hate to say it Butch, but Boomer's got you on that one."

Butch growls at his brothers. "You know what, both of you can kiss my ass."

Brick and Boomer chuckle at that. Then Brick stops and sighs.

"Look guys, I think you're both right. This isn't going to happen overnight, it's going to take awhile and that's assuming we decide to commit to the idea. That said, and it kills me to say this, but, it would be easy to be friends with them. I won't, and can't, deny that anymore."

Butch sighed in defeat and said, "Yeah. Look, I can see us getting along in the long run. Really, I can. It's just, I'm not comfortable with how quickly it seems to be moving."

Brick nodded in sympathy. "I know bro, but Blossom seems to understand that as well as I do so things shouldn't fall apart that way at least. We just have to feel things out and take our time."

Just then, there was a knock at their door.

The boys turn toward the door in surprise since only a fool would dare come to their shed. Granted, Fuzzy would fall into that category since he has tried in the past to take back his cabin on several occasions but it has been a while since he last tried. In fact, the boys thought he had finally wised up and went to find a new place to live.

In any case, Brick narrowed his eyes before asking in a nasty tone, "Who the hell is it?"

There's a slight pause before he hears a familiar voice. "Brick, it's us."

Brick's eyebrows shoot into his hair. "Blossom?" He asks softly and a little surprised.

Brick looks at his brothers who are just as surprised as he is. He then turns to the door, walks up to it, and opens it.

* * *

The girls had just touched down outside of the boy's, formerly Fuzzy's, cabin and just caught the end of a discussion they were having.

"I know bro, but Blossom seems to understand that as well as I do so things shouldn't fall apart that way at least. We just have to feel things out and take our time."

Blossom was a little surprised to hear her name and wondered what the boys were just talking about. Glancing back at her sisters, Bubbles and Buttercup just shrugged so Blossom turned back and knocked on the door. There was a pause before she heard Brick ask in a rather nasty tone, "Who the hell is it?"

Blossom blinked in surprise before she scoffed and said under her breath, "I guess some things will never fully change." Then she said louder, "Brick, it's us."

There was a pause followed by Brick saying softly, and little surprised, "Blossom?"

A moment later, the door opened and the girls saw Brick in the doorway as well as noticing Boomer sitting in Fuzzy's rocking chair and Butch leaning against the wall.

Brick asked, "What're you three doing here?"

Blossom rubbed the back of her head, saying, "We need to talk. Something's happened."

Brick raised an eyebrow. "Ok...'bout what?"

Before Blossom could say anything, Butch chimed in. "Didn't we already talk the other day?" He asked in a jokey tone while grinning.

Brick turned back and said in an annoyed tone, "Butch, not now, ok?" Butch just shrugged as a response.

Shaking his head, Brick turned back to Blossom. "So, you were saying?"

Blossom sighed, "The police found Dick Hardly dead in his cell this morning."

Brick's eyes went wide. "Wait...WHAT?!"

"Whoa, really, he's dead?" Asked Boomer.

Blossom nodded.

Butch blinked and shook his head, saying, "Ok, I'll admit, that's the last thing I was expecting but, good riddance nonetheless, one less monster in the world."

"Thank you." Said Buttercup.

"Buttercup, I..." Blossom began but then just gave up, "...you know what, never mind."

"Sooooo...is that all you wanted to tell us?" Brick asked.

Blossom shook her head. "No, he... left a recorded message for us and we kinda need you to come with us to City Hall so we can see it."

"Huh? Wait, can't you just tell us what it said?"

"No, they can't get the recording to play. The Professor is there now trying to figure out what's wrong with it."

"But...if they can't get the recoding to play, then how do they know it's for us?" Asked Boomer.

"Because Boomer, there was a hand written note with the recording that said, 'if the PPG and the RRB want a chance to live, they will watch this.'" Blossom explained.

Buttercup then added. "So, in other words, he's calling us out from beyond the grave."

The boys are stunned at how brash and cocky Dick can be, even in death.

Butch is gritting his teeth and said, "Unbelievable. You know, in terms of being an ass, Hardly is your worst enemy by far. I mean, he makes the three of us look like amateurs at being evil jerks."

Brick thinks about the situation for a moment before saying, "Alright, let's go see what the dead man has to say."

Blossom nods saying, "Thanks Brick."

Brick nods back and turns towards his brothers. "Let's go guys."

The kids take off toward downtown. Just as they crossed the city limit, Brick turned to Blossom and said, "Blossom, this whole recording could be Dick just cursing us out for beating him, you know that right?"

Blossom sighed, saying, "That thought has crossed my mind Brick and it is something he would do. But then why would he say 'if they want a chance to live, they'll watch this,' if all he wanted to do was curse us out?"

Brick rubbed his chin in thought and said, "Hmm, good point."

They could see City Hall in the distance and Bubbles pointed out the Professor's car.

"Hey, there's the Professor's car guys."

Blossom nodded. "Yep, he's here."

Then Butch said, "Hey, are you guys picking up some of the conversations in this area with your super hearing? Particularly the ones about the six of us flying together toward City Hall?"

The others glace at Butch, then listen themselves. Sure enough, they did catch quite a few conversations.

"Hey look, the RRB are flying with the PPG."

"Did the RRB turn good already?"

"Do you think the girls captured them somehow?"

"Maybe the boys are going to offer to make up for their crimes or something."

"Or maybe the boys convinced the girls to turn bad."

After listening for several seconds, Brick said, "That's something we're going to have to take care of since we don't want any major misinformation floating around right now."

Blossom nodded. "Agreed. We'll address that after we're done here."

They had reached City Hall and were about to head inside.

"Alright, let's see what this is about." Said Blossom.


	3. Chapter 3

**Here we go chapter 3.**

* * *

The kids float inside City Hall. Once they do, they hear more people whispering about why the RRB are with the girls or if the girls have been turned bad by the boys in some way. While that last thought was ridiculous on so many levels, Blossom did understand how the sight of the six of them being together and not fighting could be strange even after what happened on Halloween.

As Blossom was glancing around at the people who were whispering, she noticed out of the corner of her eye that the boys were getting a little annoyed by the whispers, so before either of them could voice their annoyance she turns to them and says, "Boys, I know you're a little annoyed with the whispering but just put up with it for a few more moments. Once we find out where everyone is, we'll quickly fly straight there."

The boys give Blossom a puzzled look but nod a moment later. When Blossom turns back around, she notices a police officer walk by so she decides to ask him where the Mayor and the others are.

"Excuse me officer, can you-" Blossom started but the officer, having noticed them now, interrupted.

"Oh girls, there you are...and the boys too." The kids blink in surprise so the officer goes on to explain. "My name's officer Clark. I was one of the officers that discovered that, you know who, had died. Everybody is waiting for you up in the Mayor's office."

"Oh. Well, thank you Officer Clark." Blossom said after a moment.

Clark nodded and walked in the direction of the Mayor's office.

"Hey wait, you're heading there too?" Blossom asked.

Clark nodded. "Yes. Officer Perez and myself, along with a couple other officers, the Chief of Police and a couple of his Lieutenants will be there. The Mayor, Ms. Bellum, and a couple other officials will be there as well, and from what I understand, Professor Utonium has been here the last 10-15 minutes trying to get the recording to work."

"Oh." Was all Blossom said to that.

Then Brick asked Clark a question. "Hey dude, I think I already know why but I'll ask anyway just to be sure, why'd you say 'you know who' instead of Dick Hardly?"

Clark glanced at Brick before explaining. "We think it would be best that this remain on a need to know basis until we have a better understanding of what we're dealing with."

Brick thought about that for a moment before nodding in agreement. "Alright, I guess that makes sense."

They had reached the Mayor's office by this point and Clark opens the door. Once inside, the kids do see the Chief of Police, several other officers, the Mayor, Ms. Bellum, a couple other city officials and Professor Utonium pacing in front of the Mayor's desk.

"Professor." Blossom called out.

The Professor and everyone else in the room turned toward Blossom's voice.

"Ah girls, there you are...and you got the boys to come, good."

Blossom nodded. "Yeah we did. So, did you get the recording to play?"

"No, but I did figure out why it wasn't playing." Utonium explained.

"Ok, what was it?" Asked Blossom.

"The recording device had some kind of scanner on it. So it wouldn't play until it detected the six of you in the vicinity around it."

Butch scoffed and said, " Wait, that's it? Surely there was a way to get around that."

Utonium nodded. "Oh there is, but it would've taken time. Besides, now that the six of you are here, it'll play regardless."

Brick sighed. "Alright, let's get this thing to play, find out what the dead man has to say, which will be him cussing us out for catching him more than likely, and go from there."

Everyone gathered around the recording as the kids got close enough so that it could detect them. Once they were, the recording started beeping and suddenly Dick's voice was heard.

"Greetings form beyond the grave everyone...and 'kids.'"

Brick's eye twitched. There he goes again with that tone of voice, regarding the six of them as 'things'. The recording went on.

"You know, when I saw the six of you that night coming up the front walkway, I couldn't believe how bad my luck was. Even with my exo suit, you were still far stronger than me and as such, I had to rely on the fact that you truly believed I was a demon and my specially modified flame throwers to keep you off balance. In the end however, fate was on your side...for that night that is."

Everyone in the room cocked their heads or raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"While I didn't have plans to destroy that night, I did have plans to destroy you in the future. Think back to when I had you trapped under the net and Blossom asked if I was really going to drown you. I responded 'considering how I wanted to get rid of you originally, drowning was a blessing.' Well, that original idea still exists and I still have a small group of scientists putting the finishing touches on it in a secret lab I have right now as you're watching this."

The kids glanced at each other for a moment before Dick continued.

"Mojo and HIM had the right idea you know girls; fighting fire with fire, thus the Ruffs were created. However, they both made the same major mistake and that was essentially making them the same as you; 'children' who think they're capable of displaying emotions or humanity. Basically, what I'm saying is, never send children to do a monster's job."

Everyone in the room sucked in a breath.

"I've created a living creature with chemical x, but it's not a humanoid creature that thinks it's human, it is a monster through and through. I also made it intelligent so that it could be trained/conditioned for the simple purpose of hunting you down and destroying you, as well as adapting to new situations. And just you wait and see what kind of power it possesses."

Everyone in the room at this point looked on edge.

"As for the Ruffs themselves, personally, I had nothing against you, until now of course but even so, if my creation destroyed the three of you as well, it would've been icing on the cake. Through it all, I think the only regret I have is that I won't be there to witness your demise with my own eyes. Rest assured however, I will be laughing from whatever pit in Hell I end up in as you die."

Dick then just laughs evilly as the recording ends. After the recording falls silent, everyone in the room is either tense, angry, or a little frightened.

Brick is beyond seething. You could practically see the steam coming out of his ears. "That bastard is lucky he's dead because otherwise I'd be beating the location of his lab out of him right now." He said through gritted teeth.

Brick then feels a hand on his shoulder. He turns to see Blossom giving him a stern but sympathetic look. "Brick, don't let him make you angry."

Brick narrowed his eyes. "Why not? He's threatening us Blossom."

"I know but what's the point getting angry at someone who isn't alive anymore? You're letting him get to you and that's exactly what he wants. He knows that because he's dead, you can't do anything to him so he'll say anything to rile you up knowing that your reaction would be in vein." Blossom explained calmly.

Brick opened his mouth to respond but nothing came out. Instead he just sighed and said, "Maybe you're right." Blossom gave him a small smile.

"I don't believe this. First he tries to drown us and now this?" Boomer asked in disbelief. Out of the corner of his eye, Boomer could see Bubbles was a little afraid of what Dick had said and felt bad for her.

Before he could ask if she was ok, Buttercup said, "Yeah, no kidding Boomer. This is stupid. Why can't people who've lost ever just accept that?"

"Because, I think that'd be asking for too much Buttercup." Responded Butch. He then added. "Also, should we even take this seriously? Cause, to me at least, Dick seems like the kind of guy to say something like this just to make us paranoid."

Brick turned toward his brother. "What? You mean, like a mind game?"

Butch nodded. "Yeah."

"To be fair Butch, I wouldn't put that past him. It would be something he would do." Said Blossom.

"Yes he would, you're right Blossom." Said the Professor. "However, I think we should hope for the best but plan for the worst. Let's assume he's serious and he has created something that'll come after the six of you."

The kids had slightly nervous looks on their faces but nodded in agreement.

"I'll get my Lieutenants to begin searching the city limits for his secret lab." Said the Chief.

"Mayor," Ms. Bellum began, "We should probably have a gag order issued. The only people who should know what's happening right now are those standing in this room."

The Mayor nodded. "Of course." Then the Mayor paused and asked, "What's a gag order?"

Ms. Bellum sighed. "It means nobody is allowed to talk about this in public until further notice."

"Ah yes, then of course, do so."

As all the adults start moving about, Brick motioned with his head for the others to follow him to a corner. He turned to the group and asked, "So, what are we going to do in the midst of all this?"

The others thought for a moment before Blossom said, "I think we should assume Dick is serious, like the Professor said, and keep our eyes open for anything out of the ordinary. We should also keep each other in the loop; so Brick, if you and your brothers see anything strange, let us know and we'll let you know if we see anything unusual. Deal?"

Blossom held out her hand. Brick looked down at Blossom's hand and quickly thought things over. Given the current situation, he decided that it was the best course of action so he took Blossom's hand and shook it saying, "Deal."

Blossom nodded. "Thanks Brick."

"Hey Bubbles, are you alright? You look really pale." They hear Boomer ask. They turn to see Bubbles was indeed rather pale as she responded.

"Yeah, I'm...fine." She didn't look too sure as she said this though.

Blossom placed both hands on her shoulders and said, "Bubbles, don't worry. We're going to face this together. OK?"

Bubbles smiled and nodded back.

Brick then remembered something. "You know, I think I might have something that'll help us keep each other informed. I just have to find it first. If I do, I'll swing by your house later and give it to you."

Blossom turned and asked, "What is it?"

"It's a set of walkie-talkies that have strong transmitters so they can send and receive signals from miles away."

Blossom blinked. "Oh yeah. That would be useful."

Brick gave a small smirk and nodded.

"Hey, what about all the whispering we heard on the way in?" Asked Butch.

Brick turned toward Butch and said, "Hey yeah, I almost forgot about that."

"We'll take care of that don't worry." Said Blossom. "We'll just say the police and the Mayor wanted to get a full detailed recount of what happened on Halloween."

The boys nod in approval. "Alright, that'll work." Said Brick.

* * *

Several minutes later, and after everything had been discussed and put in motion, the boys opened the Mayor's window and were about to fly out back towards the woods.

"Alright later, and like I said, if I find those walkies, I'll swing back by your house and give them to you Blossom." Said Brick.

Blossom nodded. "Alright Brick, thanks."

With that, the boys flew back towards the woods.

Blossom turned toward the Professor. "Ready to go home Professor?"

"Yes, I'll see you there." The girls took off but before the Professor left, he turned to the Mayor. "Mayor, if you don't mind, I'd like to take the recording back with me. Now that it has been unlocked, maybe I can poke through the programming a find a few more details to what this monster is or maybe even where Dick's lab is."

"Oh yes, of course. That sounds like a marvelous idea." The Mayor responded.

Utonium nodded. "Thanks Mayor."

As the girls were flying home, Bubble asked, "Do you guys think we can deal with whatever this creature is that Dick Hardly has made?"

"Pffffttt, come on Bubbles, we've fought monsters before. I can't imagine that Dick can create something that's more dangerous than the monsters we've dealt with in the past." Said Buttercup.

"I hope you're right Buttercup." Said Blossom.


	4. Chapter 4

**Ok guys, sorry about missing a week. I got distracted by E3 and then had one hell of a week at work but the good news is, you'll be getting chapters 4 and 5 posted within the same day. Enjoy**

 **Chapter 4.**

* * *

 _November 8, late morning._

Less than an hour after seeing Dick's message, the chief had organized his best Lieutenants to begin searching, covertly mind you, for Dick's secret lab. Also, despite the gag order, he did clue in a few more of his closest officers to what was going on. This way, he could have max coverage while minimizing the risk of a leak to the media and the general public. However, the chief knew it would be a miracle if they got any leads on Dick's secret lab in less than 72 hours, much less locating it. All he could hope for was that they found the lab before the monster was set loose...if it even existed in the first place that is.

* * *

Just after 12 noon, Brick landed outside the Utonium household. He had finally found the pair of radio/walkie-talkies and was going to give one of them to Blossom so that they could better keep each other informed.

Brick knocked on the door, waited a few moments and could hear the Professor say, "Could someone get that?"

"Sure, I'll get it." Brick heard Blossom reply.

The door opened and Brick saw that Blossom was a little surprised to see him.

"Brick, what are you doing here?"

Brick held out his hand with the radio in it and said, "This is one of those radios I said I had. Remember?"

Blossom raised an eyebrow but remembered a second later. "Oh yeah, yeah. So that's what we're going to use to keep each other informed?"

Brick nodded while handing the radio to her. "Right."

Blossom took the radio and asked, "When did you guys get these by the way?"

Brick looked away for a moment before explaining. "I won't lie Blossom, we stole them a while ago, but given the situation, I figured it was the best time to use them."

Blossom blinked in surprise and said with some hesitance, "Well...I hesitate accepting stolen property, but we do need to keep each other informed. Thanks."

Brick nodded. "Sure. It takes AA batteries, we've got plenty of those as well. Try and keep that radio with you as often as you can and we'll do the same. Deal?"

"Deal." Blossom responded. She then thought about it for a moment before adding, "We won't have it with us when we're called to defend the city or break up a robbery, but we'll make sure the Professor has it."

"Yeah, that makes sense I guess. Alright, fair enough." Said Brick.

Brick gave a mock salute, then flew off back towards the woods.

Blossom closed the door and floated back into the living room where Bubbles and Buttercup were watching Tom and Jerry.

"Who was that Blossom?" Bubbles asked.

"It was Brick. He dropped off that radio he said he had." Explained Blossom while holding it out for her sisters to see.

Buttercup and Bubbles turned to look at the radio and Buttercup said, "That's it? It looks like a walkie-talkie."

Blossom nodded. "I know but Brick said it has a strong transmitter so we can be miles apart and still have this thing work."

"Well, that's convenient, since they do live in the woods." Said Bubbles.

They all chuckled at that.

"Well anyway, this is how we're going to stay in contact with them, so we need to keep this on, as well as keep it with us, as much as possible." Blossom explained.

Bubbles and Buttercup nodded.

* * *

 _November 9 mid morning_

At Pokey Oaks Kindergarten, the kids were outside enjoying their first recess break of the day. The cooler weather had begun rolling in so the children were dressed appropriately; sweatshirts, pants, and hats being the average. The children were playing a variety of games like tag, dodge ball, jump rope, etc. The girls themselves were playing a game of 'Duck Duck Goose' with a group of their friends and Blossom was it.

"Duck. Duck. Duck. Goose!" Blossom shouted as she landed on Buttercup.

Buttercup jumped up and chased Blossom around the circle. Now because the girls could fly, they had to go around the circle 5 time as opposed to the standard 1. On the 4th go around, Buttercup was about to catch Blossom when the Hotline rang. Both sisters stopped and turned toward the school.

"Phew! Saved by the Hotline." Said Blossom.

"Yeah, naturally." Said Buttercup sarcastically.

Bubbles flew into the classroom first and answered the phone.

"Hello, Powerpuff Hotline." She said.

Blossom and Buttercup flew in just as Bubbles said, "We'll be right there mayor."

"What's up Bubbles?" Asked Blossom.

"It's Mojo. He's robbing the Townsville Mint." Bubbles explained. **(a/n I don't know if Townsville actually has a mint but let's assume Townsville is a city that just has one of everything.)**

Buttercup blinked. "The Mint? Really? Wow. He must have a good plan for once since a Mint is harder to rob than a bank."

Blossom looked down in thought. "Yeah, this is new for him." Then she looked back up at her sisters and said, "But we can handle anything Mojo can throw at us. Let's go!"

Buttercup and Bubbles nodded eagerly and all three of them take off toward downtown.

* * *

Meanwhile, in Townsville, Boomer had just floated out of a candy store with a sack full of candy and several cans of soda. Since the boys are still holding to their cease fire, Boomer actually bought everything instead of stealing it. Granted, he bought it all with stolen money but, oh well, at least he didn't steal it.

Just as Boomer was about to leave, he saw a large group of people across the street. Curious, he floated over and saw a news report on TV of Mojo robbing the Townsville Mint. Boomer didn't know what a mint was but because the report said 'robbing' Boomer assumed it was a bank of some sort. Shrugging, he took off towards home.

Just as he entered the woods, Boomer noticed the girls' streaks in the sky tearing toward downtown.

Boomer chuckled. "Pain city is on its way Mojo."

A moment later, Boomer was outside of Fuzzy's cabin.

"Hey guys, I'm back." Said Boomer as he entered.

"Ah, there you are Boomer. I was beginning to wonder how long it was going to take you." Said Butch.

Boomer gave Butch an annoyed look before saying, "To be fair Butch, I did buy this, and I bought a lot of it, so...bite me."

Butch just quietly growled as a response.

"Knock it off ladies and let's just enjoy ourselves." Brick suddenly said as he tossed a can of soda to Butch. That was enough to shut Butch up so Boomer asked Brick what a Mint was.

"Hey Brick, what's a mint?"

Brick lowered the candy bar he was about to take a bite out of. "Huh?"

"What's a mint?" Boomer repeated.

"A mint?" Brick said confused. "You mean like an after dinner mint?"

Boomer shook his head. "No, not that. Just before I took off, I saw something on the news that Mojo was robbing the Townsville Mint. I'm assuming it's a bank or something."

Butch spit out the soda he was drinking. "Wait, what? Mojo's robbing the Mint?" Butch asked surprised.

Brick looked surprised as well. "Whoa, that's new for him."

Boomer shook his head in exasperation. "So, what's a mint? Is it a bank or something? Why are you guys so surprised?"

Brick shook his head and said, "No Boomer, it's not a bank. A bank, basically, is where you store money. A mint is where money is printed."

Boomer's eyes widened. "Ohhhhhh."

"So, do you think Mojo has made a fool proof plan for once, since a mint has much higher security than a bank, or do you think he's completely lost it?" Butch asked.

Brick shrugged. "Good question."

"Well, we could find out." Said Boomer.

Butch and Brick turned toward Boomer and said in unison, "How?"

"Well, just before I got back, I saw the girls racing toward downtown." Boomer said as he pointed out behind him.

Butch's eyebrows shot up into his hair. "Are you suggesting we head out there and watch?"

Boomer shrugged. "Why not? It's not like we're doing anything else today." Boomer then paused to think about it and added, "Besides, if robbing a mint is as hard as you two say it is, won't it be really funny watching Mojo's VERY carefully laid out plan fail and fall apart?"

Butch and Brick glance at each other for a moment before Brick turns back and says, "You know what Boomer? That might be the first good idea you've ever had." Brick then grins as he says, "Grab some snacks boys and let's go watch a show!"

The boys grab as much candy and soda as they can carry and take off toward downtown to watch Mojo fail.

* * *

 **Alright, chapter 4 done. There is still a few chapters left before we get into the main bulk of the story so be patient. But I promise you, it will be fun.**

 **Now, about E3...HOLY CRAP, it was awesome this year. XBOX ONE announcing backwards compatibility, which earned the loudest cheers at the press conference, DOOM, Gears of War 4, rereleasing the original Gears of War on the XBOX ONE in August and subsequently Gears 2 and 3 through out the next year and a half leading up to Gears 4...I'm assuming, rereleasing DISHORNORED and announcing DISHORNORED 2, Forza 6, and my favorite, Star Wars Battlefront. On Star Wars Battlefront, if the MP demo that EA showed was just the _Pre-Alpha_ build of the game, what's the final build going to look like? I'm actually a little worried an explosion in game is going to set my room on fire. The Pre-Alpha looks so good already, I'd buy it right now actually. ****There were a few more titles I'm interested in but the above games are the ones that I'm most interested in.**

 **Anyway, Chapter 5 will be up shortly.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

* * *

As the girls got within visual range of the mint, they saw smoke coming from the building.

"Whoa, part of the building is on fire." Observed Buttercup.

"Probably a distraction of some sort, or the result of Mojo's entrance." Said Blossom.

"Hey what are those spider/crab looking things crawling all over the mint?" Bubbles asked.

Blossom and Buttercup glanced at Bubbles before looking back at the mint and noticing them themselves.

"Huh?" Said Blossom.

"Hey yeah, what are those?" Asked Buttercup.

Suddenly, what could only be described as laser anti-aircraft fire, enveloped them.

"Yikes!" Shrieked Bubbles.

"Whoa!" Yelled Buttercup.

"Evasive action!" Shouted Blossom.

* * *

Inside the mint, Mojo is stuffing bags full of unmarked bills as well as the printing plates used to stamp the paper when he hears the AA fire.

"Ah, my AA defense drones have been activated, thus they have located airborne targets, which could only mean one thing, the Powerpuff Girls have arrived, which would explain why my AA defense drones are firing." Mojo said to himself. "I should take that as my cue to begin my escape, due to the fact they are meant to buy me time for me to slip away unnoticed, thus escaping the scene."

* * *

Meanwhile, the boys had just made it to downtown when the sky was suddenly full of bright laser fire.

"Whoa!" Exclaimed Boomer.

"What the heck is that? It looks like the 4th of July." Said Butch.

"I think the show has already started boys. Let's pick up the pace before we miss anything interesting." Said Brick.

* * *

The girls were dodging laser fire left, right, up, down, forward, and backward to avoid getting hit.

"This is crazy!" Shouted bubbles.

"Yeah, we're barely able to dodge all this laser fire, let alone get close enough to take out the drones!" Shouted Buttercup.

"Let's fly down to the ground, maybe we can fly under it!" Blossom instructed.

The girls dove for the ground and just before slamming into it, they pulled up a mere 3 feet from impact. The girls were able to fly low enough to get under the majority of the laser fire and even managed to get close to the mint but they forgot the drones could move. Seconds before the girls could break down the wall, enough of the drones repositioned and opened fire on them again essentially creating a wall of laser fire between them and the wall.

"Girls, fall back!" Blossom ordered.

As the girls retreated, Buttercup flew ahead and blasted a hole in the ground near the perimeter of the mint so they could take cover and think of a plan.

"Phew! Good work Buttercup." Said Blossom.

"Don't mention it, but what do we do now? With those things able to reposition like that, how can we get close enough to them?"

"Just give me a minute Buttercup, I'll think of something."

"What if we tunnel underground? That way, we can avoid the guns all together." Said Bubbles.

"Are you kidding Bubbles? That'd take way too long to tunnel all the way inside. Mojo could be long gone by the time we get in there and on top of that, who's to say there won't be more of those robots inside where we'll have even less room to dodge?" Said Buttercup.

"Oh right. Sorry." Said Bubbles sadly.

"Either way, we can't approach the mint head on, and Buttercup, you're right, it'd take too long to dig our way in but Bubbles has the right idea, we have to avoid the laser fire somehow or..." an idea suddenly popped into Blossom's head, "...or have something take the brunt of the laser fire for us."

"Huh?" Asked Bubbles.

"What do you mean take the brunt of the laser fire?" Asked Buttercup.

"What I mean is, we hold something in front of us as we move forward, let it take all the laser fire, and once we're close enough..." Blossom leaves the sentence open for Buttercup to finish.

Buttercup catches on and says, "...then we take out the drones!"

"Exactly!" Exclaims Blossom.

"So, basically a shield?" Asks Bubbles.

Blossom nods.

"Ok, but what are we going to use for a shield?" Bubbles continues.

Blossom glances around quickly and noticed a nearby construction site with large steel plates on the ground. She grinned. "I think I just found our shield."

* * *

Meanwhile, watching from the top of a nearby building, the boys were amazed that Mojo had apparently put enough careful thought into his plan to keep the girls back for this long. Normally, the girls would be kicking Mojo's butt by now but Mojo hasn't even shown himself yet.

Butch, who had just swallowed a mouth full of gumdrops, turned to Brick, "So, not only is Mojo robbing a mint, as opposed to a bank, but he's actually succeeding for once in keeping the girls occupied?"

Brick nodded in slight surprise. "Yeah, he is." He then took a sip of soda and let out a belch afterward.

Butch turned back toward the action as the girls were forced to retreat after the drones repositioned. He watched as Buttercup flew ahead faster than Blossom and Bubbles and blew a hole in the ground where the three of them could hide and think of a plan.

Butch shook his head. "What the heck happened? When did Mojo get a brain? Or at the very least, start using the oversized one he already had?"

"Good question." Said Brick.

"Hey, where is Mojo anyway? I haven't even seen him yet." Said Boomer, who was sucking on a lollipop.

"He's probably still in the mint stealing as much money, and who knows what else, as he can." Answered Brick.

Just then, Blossom flies over to a nearby construction site.

"Hey, what's Blossom doing?" Boomer asked.

Blossom picks up a steel plate then flies back over to Buttercup and Bubbles.

Brick smirked. "Ah, I think I know what they're going to do."

* * *

Blossom lands next to Buttercup and Bubbles.

"Alright, here's what we're going to do. On the count of 3, we're going to race toward the mint. Once there, destroy as many as the drones as quickly as you can. If we still have trouble dealing with them, which we shouldn't once we get in their faces, we'll just immediately duck inside."

Bubbles and Buttercup nodded and they each got behind the steel plate with Buttercup supporting the bottom of the plate and Blossom and Bubbles taking the top two corners.

"Ready girls?" Asked Blossom.

"Yeah!" Said Bubbles.

"Let's do this!" Said Buttercup.

"Alright then. 1, 2, 3!"

* * *

"There they go." Said Brick.

The moment the girls took off however, the AA guns all converged on the steel plate and opened fire. In fact, it actually stopped the girls dead in their tracks for a moment but Blossom shouted, "Push with everything you've got girls!", and they were able to move forward again.

"Yikes." Said Brick. "I didn't realize how much firepower those drones had until they all fired at once."

"You guys think that steel plate will hold?" Asked Boomer.

"Heh, it better Boomer, otherwise, the girls are toast." Said Butch.

* * *

It took a lot of effort but the girls were able to get right in the AA drones faces.

"Alright, let's tear 'em apart!" Buttercup shouted.

Blossom and Bubbles eagerly nodded and all three of them heaved the steel plate toward a group of the drones destroying seven of them. Over the next 20 seconds, the girls destroyed the remaining drones with ease.

"Alright, that's the last of them." Said Blossom.

"Hooray!" Exclaimed Bubbles.

"Now let's go get Mojo." Said Buttercup.

The girls then fly inside and shout out, "Not so fast Mo-" but that's as far as they got before they realized no one was there.

"What the...where is he?" Buttercup asked.

"I don't know. You don't think he's invisible do you?" Bubbles asked.

Buttercup gave her sister an exasperated look. "I doubt it Bubbles. Even if he was, we'd still be able to hear him since he's not exactly...the quietest villain we have to deal with."

Blossom flies around the mint for a few moments before she realizes what Mojo's plan was.

"Of course, that's what he was doing." She said out loud.

Buttercup and Bubbles look over at Blossom and Buttercup asks, "What did he do?"

"The drones were a diversion, to keep us busy. The moment he heard them open fire was probably when he started packing up to leave. And from the moment the drones opened fire to when we entered the mint, Mojo had roughly 5 minutes to get out and that's more than enough time for him." Blossom explained.

Buttercup and Bubbles' mouths were hung open in shock. Mojo usually attacked them directly so for him to go for the 'watch this hand instead of this one' tactic was unusual.

"Ok, so Mojo has a 5 minute head start. Big deal, we've chased down criminals with bigger head starts than that." Said Buttercup.

Blossom nodded. "That's true, so let's head back outside."

* * *

"Hmmm. They took care of those drones faster than I thought they would." Said Brick.

"Yeah. Not bad either." Said Butch.

"I like how they took out seven of them with that plate they threw." Said Boomer.

"Yeah, well, it's Mojo's fault for programming them to bunch up like that." Said Butch.

"Hey, they just flew inside." Said Brick.

Butch and Boomer turn back toward the mint just as they hear the girls call out "Not so fast Mo-" but then they stopped.

The boys raise an eyebrow in confusion.

"Huh, what happened? Why did they stop?" Butch asked.

Brick shrugged. "Beats me. I didn't hear any other laser or weapon fire so it can't be because something ambushed them."

"Do you guys think Mojo was even here? Cause at this point doesn't he usually beg the girls not to beat him up?" Boomer asked.

"Yeah he does. What the heck is going on?" Asked Butch.

Just then, the boys hear the sound of a manhole cover lifting up with their super hearing. All three of them lean over the edge of the building they're on top of and look down to see Mojo climbing out onto the street looking smug.

"What the...how did he get out here?" Butch asked.

Brick was stumped too. He looked back at the mint, where the girls were still inside trying to find Mojo, then at all the destroyed AA drones. Then it clicked in his head and he immediately understood what was going on.

"Oh Mojo, you sly dog." Brick said out loud.

Butch and Boomer look at Brick and Butch asks, "Huh, what do you mean?"

Brick looks at his brothers and explains. "Mojo was never going to fight them directly. The AA drones were a diversion to keep the girls occupied. In fact, I'll bet you two anything, that the moment he heard them open fire, that was his cue to leave. He knew the girls were going to destroy his drones eventually, so he based his plan around that; break in, steal as much as he could, then as soon as his drones opened fire on the girls, start packing up and leave. That was his plan the whole time."

Butch and Boomer were stunned. They couldn't believe it, Mojo had finally come up with a fool proof plan.

"So he actually pulled it off. He finally came up with a successful plan." Said Butch.

"Yep." Said Brick.

Then Boomer noticed something with his super vision before he turned back toward Brick and Butch.

"Well, ok, yes he came up with a successful plan for robbing the mint but, you can't plan for everything right?" Brick and Butch give their brother a questioning look. Boomer continues. "I did say it would be fun to watch Mojo fail so what fun is it if Mojo doesn't actually fail?"

"Well, yeah, you did say that but Mojo didn't fail, he has essentially gotten away. All he has to do now is put on a disguise of some sort or sneak out of the area and boom, he's done." Butch explained.

"Yeah but, again, you can't plan for everything right? There's a term for it, what's it called?" Boomer asked while rubbing his chin and looking down in thought.

Then Brick said, "I think the term you're looking for is called an 'x-factor' Boomer."

Boomer nodded and said, "Yeah, that's it."

"Ok, yeah, an x-factor, by definition, is something you literally can not plan for. It's something that occurs completely at random, but what's your point?" Said Brick.

"Well, Mojo is standing next to a car right?" Said Boomer.

Brick and Butch glance down and see said car that Boomer is referring to and Brick says, "Right."

"And the little blinking red light on the dashboard means it has an alarm right?" Boomer continued.

Brick and Butch both blink at this and, using their own super vision, look at the car Mojo is currently standing next to and, sure enough, see a blinking red light. At this point Brick has figured out where Boomer is going with this and is a little conflicted.

"Boomer, I realize we came here to watch Mojo fail but, you do realize what you're proposing is essentially helping the girls catch Mojo, right?" Brick explained.

"Well, it's not like I'm suggesting we scream out, 'hey girls, Mojo is over here.'" Said Boomer.

"Yeah, I know, you want to set off the car alarm and that would be the 'x-factor' that Mojo couldn't have planned for but still, we would be helping them." Said Brick.

"Yeah Boomer, we haven't exactly made that decision yet you know." Said Butch.

"Who said we're helping them? We can just say we watched Mojo climb out of the sewer and he just got too close to the car and, for whatever reason, the alarm went off." Boomer said with a smirk. "We didn't do anything, we just watched it happen. Besides, we've messed with Mojo in the past before, how is this any different?"

Brick and Butch looked at Boomer in shock. He was right, and they did come out here to watch Mojo fail so why not.

"Brick, please tell me I'm not the only one who gets a little freaked out whenever Boomer says something that makes sense." Said Butch.

Brick looks at Butch, chuckles, and says, "Don't worry, you're not."

Boomer gives them both an annoyed look and says, "Very funny guys."

Brick shakes his head in amusement. Out of the corner of his eye, he notices the girls fly back out of the mint and start looking around.

"Ok, I see the girls now which means Mojo will see them any second, so how do we set off the alarm without giving ourselves away?"

The boys quickly glance around when Butch notices all the damage the AA drones have caused to the buildings in the area.

"What if," Butch began, "some of the concrete 'fell off' the building and hit the windshield?"

Boomer and Brick look at Butch and Brick says, "That's perfect." Brick then tears a piece of concrete half the size of his head out of the edge of the roof and holds it over the side of the building and lets go.

5 seconds later, a loud crash is heard and the alarm goes off.

Mojo screams in surprise. "AHHHHHHHHHHHHH, WHAT IN THE WORLD?! WHAT HAPPEND?! WHICH IS TO SAY, WHAT CAUSED THIS VERY LOUD CRASH?!"

 _*Honk Honk Honk Honk Honk Honk*_

The boys quickly duck away from the edge of the building and are snickering.

"Did you see the look on his face?" Asked Boomer.

"Yeah. I don't know what was louder; the crash, Mojo screaming, or the alarm going off." Said Butch.

"Well, either way, the girls see him now." Said Brick as he points out toward the mint.

* * *

The girls have just flown out of the mint and are looking around for any sign of Mojo.

"Alright, if I was a super, mad-scientist, monkey genius, who had just robbed the Townsville Mint, where would I go?" Buttercup asked.

"My evil lair?" Bubbles guessed.

Buttercup's face fell, of course. "Yeah, my evil lair, duh." Face palming while saying so.

"Alright, let's head for Mojo's lair." Said Blossom.

But before they could, they all heard a loud crash, followed by a car alarm going off, and then finally Mojo screaming at the top of his lungs, "AHHHHHHHHHHHHH, WHAT IN THE WORLD?! WHAT HAPPEND?! WHICH IS TO SAY, WHAT CAUSED THIS VERY LOUD CRASH?!"

The girls turn toward the direction they heard it all coming from and sure enough saw Mojo in the middle of the street jumping up and down in frustration.

"Well, that was easy." Said Bubbles.

"Yeah, whatever, let's go kick his butt." Said Buttercup.

"Right, let's get him." Said Blossom.

The girls rocket toward Mojo and proceed to beat the ever loving crap out of him. After about 10 seconds, Mojo was lying on the ground in a heap of pain. The police then rolled up and put Mojo in hand cuffs before throwing him in the back of a meat wagon.

"Alright girls, good job. We may even make it back in time before recess is over." Said Blossom.

"Yay!" Exclaimed Bubbles.

"Yeah, and we're going to pick up right where we left off leader girl. If it wasn't for the Hotline ringing, I would've caught you and you know it." Said Buttercup.

Blossom then got a mischievous look in her eye as she floated toward Buttercup. "Oh yeah? Well, here's your chance to prove it Buttercup." Blossom suddenly leap frogged over Buttercup's head and shouted, "Race you back to school!" Blossom then took off in the blink of an eye.

"Hey, you cheated! Get back here!" Buttercup shouted back as she took off after Blossom.

Bubbles just giggled at her sisters' antics and took off after them herself.

* * *

The boys watched as the girls took off shaking their heads in amusement.

"What do you think Blossom and Buttercup were talking about just then?" Asked Butch.

"Beats me. Probably a game of some sort." Said Brick.

Boomer just laughed. "That was fun though, wasn't it? Watching Mojo fail and all?"

Brick gave Boomer a knowing look and said, "Well, to be fair, Mojo wouldn't have failed if we hadn't dropped a chunk of concrete onto the car, but, yeah, it was fun to watch."

"So, what now?" Butch asked.

Brick thought about it for a moment then said, "Eh, let's just head home. I think we got enough entertainment for one day."

And with that the boys took off towards home.

* * *

 **Ok chapter 5 done. Now guys, this is as far as I got with writing out this story in advance, so from this point on, the updates may come a little slower but I'll try to get them out once a week.**

 **See you guys later.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey guys, sorry for the wait. I nearly finished this entire chapter when I realized that it wouldn't make sense. Basically, the boys were going to spend a day swimming at the lake but then I remembered I said in a previous chapter that the weather was getting cooler so it wouldn't have made sense for them to be swimming, so I had to scrap the entire second half of the chapter and rewrite it differently. Then the internet at my house went out for a while so I couldn't post even if I wanted to, then I had 5 days of writers block, and finally, I'm having to adjust to a new work schedule.**

 **sigh...so, yeah, life has been crazy for the last 2-3 weeks.**

 **In any case here's chapter 6.**

* * *

 _November 10, 12 noon._

The following day, the boys are sitting in the middle of Fuzzy's cabin playing a game of poker. They're doing this because of their agreed cease fire with the girls and the city instead of their usual activities which involves harassing Townsville and causing damage. The boys each have different feelings for their new lifestyle however. Boomer is actually perfectly fine with the way things are at the moment since he can take and roll with just about any situation he's presented with and make something out of it. Brick is more half and half; he would like things to go back to the way they used to be but he does understand that some things should be allowed to play out and this is one of those times. Butch on the other hand, well...

"OK, THAT'S IT!" Butch shouted at the top of his lungs while slamming his cards on the floor so hard that Brick, Boomer, and the rest of the cards flew into the air and had 2 seconds of air time before crashing to the ground in a heap. Not to mention, Brick and Boomer were nearly scared out of their skins.

Brick looked up angrily with his cap crooked on his head from the sudden outburst and shouted, "BUTCH, WHAT THE HELL!?"

"YEAH MAN, YOU NEARLY GAVE ME A HEART ATTACK!" Said Boomer, equally upset.

"We need to do something else besides playing card games and/or eating food to keep ourselves occupied!" Butch explained. "I know we're in a cease fire with the girls and the city, but I'm starting to go stir crazy!"

"Starting to?" Brick asked incredulously.

"BITE ME!" Butch snarled back.

Just as Brick and Butch were about to make things physical, Boomer jumped inbetween them.

"Whoa guys hold on a second!" Boomer says desperately then turns to Butch. "Butch, please calm down. Why are you even bothered by this? It doesn't bother me."

Butch glared at Boomer and said, "Well of course it doesn't bother you Boomer, on the account that you're so stupid you can be amused by something shiny!"

Boomer's eyes widen in surprise as he shouts indigently, "HEY!"

Brick was surprised as well. "Whoa, dude, harsh."

"Oh shut up!" Said Butch.

Brick sighed in annoyance and asked, "Ok, Butch, what is your problem? Why're you acting like this?"

"Why? Because the only, quote unquote, interesting/fun thing we've done since Halloween was go watch the girls kick Mojo's butt yesterday and even then we actually had to help them find Mojo just to watch him get his butt kicked. Granted, we made it look like a fluke and Mojo's reaction was funny, but still, we helped them." Butch ranted. "Other than that, all we've done the past several days since Halloween was sit around playing card games and eat. We used to do those things as downtime between harassing the city and picking fights with the girls, now we're doing it just for the sake of keeping ourselves occupied. We've got to do something else."

Brick though about what Butch said for a moment and decided he was right, they did need to do something else.

Brick sighed. "Ok, Butch, you're right, we do need to do something else, the question is what."

"Anything." Said Butch. "And I do mean anything."

"Well, 'anything' can't include harassing Townsville." Said Brick.

Butch's eye twitched before he face palmed and said, "Cause of the cease fire, right?"

Brick nodded. "That's right Butch, and I know you don't like the cease fire because it's interfering with what we normally do for fun but there are times when you should let things play out. So with that in mind, what do you want to do? Cause I'll be honest Butch, I don't have any ideas right now."

Butch thought about it for a few seconds but nothing came to mind. Well nothing that didn't involve destruction to Townsville anyway.

"Hey, have we ever gone to the lake before?" Boomer suddenly asked.

"The lake?" Asked Brick with a raised eyebrow.

"What?" Deadpanned Butch.

"The lake." Boomer repeated. "There's a lake out here in the woods right? Why don't we head out to the lake and do something there?"

Butch was about to shoot down Boomer's idea but Brick saw it coming and spoke first.

"Boomer, that does actually sound like a good idea just to give us something to do, but it's gotten cooler the last couple days and it's only going to keep getting cooler as the days and weeks go on so we can't go swimming."

"Oh, I know that Brick." Replied Boomer. "I wasn't going to suggest swimming. As much as I hate to admit it, I know I can be...slow at times, but I'm not that slow."

Brick blinked in surprise before he gave a half smile and chuckled softly to himself then said, "You know Boomer, I'm beginning to think that your problem isn't that you're stupid but that you don't think before you speak."

Both Boomer and Butch looked at Brick with a raised eyebrow. But, while Boomer's was more like, 'what do you mean by that?" Butch's was clearly saying something along the lines of, 'what the hell are you talking about?'

Brick noticed both looks and explained more. "What I mean by that is, looking back now at all the times you said something stupid, I realize now what you meant to say, but since you didn't think about what you were saying, it came out wrong. The best example I can think of was our first fight with the girls after HIM resurrected us. After we cornered the girls on top of that parking deck and I shouted, 'you calling us stupid!?,' you said, 'we'll show you stupid,' which made it sound like we would do something stupid to show them what stupid was."

Boomer raised an eyebrow in confusion at that at first, but it hit him like a truck a few moments later and he face palmed in embarrassment. "Ohhhhhhh, now I get it. No wonder you hit me. Heck, I would've hit me."

"Well, actually Boomer, you just did. You face palmed yourself." Butch said with a smirk.

Brick snickered a little at that remark while Boomer just gave Butch an annoyed look, saying, "Oh yeah, that's funny Butch. You're funny."

"Eh, I try." Butch said shrugging his shoulders. Boomer just rolled his eyes.

"Anyway, back on topic," Said Brick, "I now know what you meant to say was something along the lines of, 'we'll show you that you're stupid,' because then that way you would've called the girls stupid for calling us stupid."

Boomer sighed, "Yeah you're right. That's what I thought I said. Actually, that's probably how it sounded in my head."

Brick nodded. "Yeah, to you maybe, but to the rest of us, you said something stupid. If you can learn to think before you speak, you'd probably not even say half of the stupid stuff you say sometimes."

"Is that hard to do?" Boomer asked.

"Maybe at first," Said Brick, "but I'd imagine it would get easier." Boomer nodded and looked down in thought at that.

Then Brick went back to their original conversation. "So anyway, if you weren't going to suggest swimming, what were you going to say?"

"Huh? Oh, uh, well, I thought we could just do what Butch and Buttercup did the other day, skip stones. The difference being, they were skipping across the pond in the park, we'll be skipping across a lake so it would be a bit more challenging. And once we get bored with that, I'm sure the three of us together could think of something else to do for fun."

Brick thought about this for a couple seconds before shrugging his shoulders and said, "You know what, why not. Let's give it a shot."

Butch gave Brick a 'what the hell' look and said, "Wait...seriously?"

"Well to be fair Butch, you did say anything and this counts as anything, so yeah. Unless you've got a better idea."

Butch didn't have a better idea so all he could do was sigh and say, "Fine, let's go."

The boys grabbed some snacks and drinks, then flew out to the lake.

* * *

The boys were about 100ft above the water's surface when they arrived and determined they would skip the stones across the lake's length for the greatest challenge. The lake's longest stretch was about 3 miles across from one shoreline to the next so the boys agreed that this would be the perfect location.

"Ok, if we're going to do this," said Butch, "we're going to do it the same way Buttercup and I did it." Using his supervision, Butch spotted several large, flat-ish, rocks on the far shoreline and pointed to them saying, "Ok, there are several large, flat, rocks over there and the one we're aiming for actually has a tree growing out of it."

Boomer and Brick both use their supervision and spot the rock in question.

Brick nods. "Ok yeah, I see it."

Boomer nods as well and asks, "Ok, what're the rules?"

"First one to land 10 stones on that rock wins." Butch explains.

"Deal." Brick and Boomer reply in unison.

* * *

At first, the boys were no where near on target; they were either throwing their stones too soft and falling short, too hard and overshooting the target, or were just plain inaccurate. Eventually, after awhile, and after they had gone through most of their snacks, they dialed in their skipping techniques and the score was Boomer 7 and Brick and Butch were both on 9. It was currently Boomer's turn and he was winding up to throw. He let the stone fly and it skipped across the lake surface at great speed. Because of their super strength, the boys could skip the stones the nearly 3 mile stretch of water in less then 10 seconds. Boomer's most recent throw however didn't even make half that; a fish had leapt out of the water and was actually cut in half due to the speed of the skipping stone. At first the boys were stunned, but they broke out laughing a few seconds later.

"Pffffffttttttt, HAHAHAHA, what're the odds of that happening?" Butch asked.

"I don't know but nice throw Boomer even if it was a fluke." Said Brick.

"Yeah, thanks, HAHA." Said Boomer. "Hey guys, because it was a fluke, can I have another go?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, sure, go for it." Said Brick.

Boomer picked up another stone and he let it fly. This time he didn't hit any fish, instead, he hit the tree that was growing out of the rock, snapping it in half instead.

"Whoa dude, you actually hit the tree." Said Butch.

"Nice Boomer. Even if you lose the game, you at least get the consolation prize for hitting the tree." Said Brick.

Boomer perked up at that. "Really? What's the consolation prize?"

"Bragging rights." Said Brick.

"Really? Oh come on." Boomer whined.

Brick rolled his eyes. "Alright, alright, how about a 2-liter bottle of soda and a bag of candy of your choosing."

Boomer looked up in thought for a moment before shaking his head and saying, "How about, 2 bottles of soda and 2 bags of candy of my choosing?"

Brick blinked in surprise. "Wait, did-did you just...haggle?"

"Yeah." Said Boomer with a confident smirk on his face.

Brick smirked. "Boomer, I'm proud of you. You got a deal."

"Sweet!" Boomer yelled happily.

Butch scoffed. "Alright, that's nice and all ladies but if you don't mind Brick, I'd like to beat you today."

Brick grinned. "We'll see about that."

Brick and Butch lined up on the shore and Butch threw first. The stone skipped across the water and landed on the rock a few seconds later.

"YES! BOO-YAH! In your face Brick!" Butch cheered.

"Whoa, hang on Butch, I still have to throw mine." Said Brick.

"What? It was first to 10 stones Brick, I won." Butch argued.

"I know that Butch, but we were both tied at 9. If I miss this throw, then you win, if I make it then we go to a tie breaker and the first one to miss loses." Brick countered.

Butch gave Brick another 'what the hell' look when Boomer said. "You know Butch, that does sound fair."

"Easy for you to say Boomer, you already lost." Said Butch with crossed arms.

"I- wow, really?" Said Boomer annoyed. Butch just smirked.

Boomer shook his head. "Ok, Butch, let me get this straight; you weren't afraid of possibly losing to a girl when you played this game with Buttercup a few days ago, but you are afraid to lose to Brick?"

Butch's jaw all but hit the ground after hearing that. Brick was shocked as well but it only lasted a couple moments before he broke down laughing.

"Pfffffttttttt, HAHAHAHA, OH WOW! Not only does Boomer have a good point Butch, he nailed you to the wall with it! HAHAHAHA!"

Butch turned to Brick with a hard glare and said, "Shut up Brick!" When Butch turned back however, he saw Boomer with a smirk plastered on his face and crossing his arms looking smug.

Growling, Butch threw his arms up, saying, "Alright fine! Brick, throw your stone and let's see what happens."

After wiping away a tear, Brick said, "Ok, here it goes."

Brick throws his stone and it nearly falls short but it just makes it and teeters on the edge of the rock.

"Oh wow." Whispers Boomer.

"Oooooo, that was close." Said Brick.

Butch is staring at the stone in disbelief. "Unbelievable. You would just barely make it."

"Don't hate the player Butch, hate the game." Said Brick.

"Whatever." Said Butch.

"Alright, tie-breaker!" Said Boomer.

Brick and Butch both grabbed a few extra stones and lined up on the shoreline again. This time Brick went first and his first stone landed on the rock. Butch then went and his made it as well. Two more rounds went by when Brick said, "Oh wow, this might actually take a minute or two."

10 rounds later, Brick is throwing again and his stone skips across the water's surface. Although it does reach the rock, it ricochets of one of the other skipping stones that was already on it and flies off into the water. They all see this and Butch jumps up in celebration once more.

"YES!" Yells Butch.

"Dammit." Mutters Brick.

"HAHAHAHAHA, I WIN! Go Butch! Go Butch! Go Butch!" Butch chants as he does a little victory dance.

"You got lucky that my rock bounced off the other stone Butch. Otherwise, you know I would've won." Said Brick.

"Sorry, what's that? I can't hear you over my victory." Butch bragged as he went back to dancing.

Brick was about to make him shut up when Boomer grabbed his shoulder.

"Brick, just let him work it out of his system. He's too pleased with himself for you to make him stop."

Brick sighed and turned toward Boomer. "I know Boomer, and that's the problem."

Boomer rolled his eyes and said, "I know, but when was the last time you or I were able to calm him down when he's this excited?"

Brick opened his mouth to respond but he couldn't remember a time when either of them could make Butch shut up when he was this pleased with himself. "Good point."

Boomer nodded understandably, then asked, "So, what should we do now?"

Brick rubbed his chin in thought and said, "Well, we could-" Brick stopped midsentence when he noticed that it seemed to be a bit dark for daytime. He turned back to Boomer and asked, "Hey, what time is it?"

"Huh? Oh it's..." Boomer looks down to check his digital watch and gets a surprise, "...it's 5:27."

Brick's eyes widen. "What?"

Butch stops dancing at this and turns toward his brothers in shock. "Wait! We've been doing this crap for 5 and a half hours?!"

"Yeah, I guess." Boomer replied.

"But, how?! We've just been skipping stones! How could we've killed 5 and a half hours just skipping stones?"

Boomer just shrugged and looked to Brick for him to answer.

"Hey, don't look at me. I'm just as stumped as you two are."

"Maybe it's just as simple as...time flies when you're having fun." Said Boomer.

"While we were just skipping stones?" Butch asked in disbelief.

Brick just shook his head. "We've never really given anything else a try before other than harassing the city and its inhabitants, the girls, or the other villains for that matter."

"But," Butch began again, "it's just skipping stones. How does skipping stones kill 5 and a half hours? It's such a simple activity."

"I don't know Butch." Brick glanced at the sky then he looked back at his brothers. "Look, we could think of something else to do but it'll be dark soon so it almost wouldn't be worth it. Let's just grab dinner from somewhere, head home, and call it a day."

The boys took off and got some burgers,...ok, a lot of burgers,... from the burger joint on the pier where the girls tried fighting them with those vehicles that one time and then flew home.

* * *

After they finished their dinner, around 8-ish, Boomer asked, "So, what are we going to do tomorrow?"

Brick shrugged. "Not really sure Boomer. But we'll figure something out." Then Brick grinned as he added, "After all, we don't want Butch to have another 'stir crazy' episode."

Boomer laughed at that while Butch gave them both a flat look and said, "Oh, HA HA, funny. At least we did something with ourselves today. Even if I still don't believe we killed 5 and a half hours doing it."

Brick sighed. "Well, it is what it is Butch. Let's just go to bed and we'll figure out what we're going to do tomorrow, alright?"

"Yeah, fine." Butch muttered.

"Night guys." Said Boomer from his corner of the cabin.

"Night." Said Brick.

"Yeah, Night." Said Butch.

And with that, the boys were sleeping a few minutes later.

* * *

 **So, a chapter focusing solely on the boys and what they've been doing with themselves the last few days since Halloween. They can't do their normal fun activities so they have to think outside the box...well, for them anyway...to find some entertainment and they're surprised that they had fun doing something so simple. Does this mean something for them in the future? We'll have to wait and see. The next chapter will focus on the girls for a day, and then we'll get back into the main story.**

 **Again, sorry for the long wait guys. I did say before I even started writing, that this story would take longer to write because I was building it from scratch. No Scooby-Doo plot lines in this one so don't be surprised if this 'long wait thing' happens again.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

* * *

 _November 11, 11 am._

It was currently arts and crafts period at Pokey Oaks and the kids were making decorations themed around Fall and a few were already making Thanksgiving themed decorations as well. Ms. Keane did plan on dedicating an entire week to making Thanksgiving decorations the week before the holiday but she saw no reason to curb any of her students imaginations if they wanted to start early.

Bubbles and Robyn were two of the children who had started making Thanksgiving decorations early and were both currently drawing turkeys on paper and then cutting them out. Robyn was having a little trouble drawing the turkey's body so she asked Bubbles for help.

"Hey Bubbles, can you help me? I can't get the turkey's body to look quite right."

Bubbles looked over at Robyn's drawing and nodded. "Sure, I can help. Their bodies are a little tricky to draw."

Bubbles quickly made a couple small improvements to Robyn's drawing and it looked perfect.

"How do you make that look so easy?" Robyn asked.

Bubbles just shrugged and said, "I'm not sure. Maybe it's because I draw so much."

Robyn nodded deciding that that was as good an answer as any. After all practice makes perfect. Robyn then decides to ask Bubbles about the girls most recent fight with Mojo.

"Hey Bubbles, how'd that fight with Mojo go at the Townsville Mint the other day? I heard my parents say something about him doing something different than usual."

Bubbles turned toward Robyn and said, "Oh yeah, that. Well, normally, Mojo fights us head on in some way but that day, he didn't fight us at all. What he did was put all these walking laser guns all over the mint and once they starting firing at us, he just left the mint through some tunnel somewhere that we didn't find. The police found it a few hours later so we now know how he got out, but yeah, it was something new from him." After thinking about it for a moment, Bubbles then added, "If fact, hitting the Mint itself was new for him. He usually just robs the bank or a jewelry store."

"Hey, wait. If you guys didn't know how he got out, then how'd you catch him?" Robyn asked.

Bubbles giggled and said, "Well, according to Blossom, Mojo just had bad luck."

At Robyn's confused look, Bubbles explained. "You see, what happened was, after Mojo crawled out of a manhole and onto the street, a chunk of concrete fell from one of the buildings and hit a car that he was standing right next to, setting off the alarm. Now, I'm not sure which one we heard the most; the loud crash, the alarm, or Mojo screaming at the top of his lungs about why it had happened, but it's how we found him."

Robyn blinked. "So, something completely random is what did Mojo in?"

Bubbles nodded. "Yeah, pretty much."

Robyn replied. "Wow. Then yeah, that's bad luck on Mojo's part."

Both girls laughed at that and then went back to making their decorations.

* * *

 _1230 pm, recess._

Outside at recess, Buttercup was playing a game of horse with Mitch and he had asked the same question that Robyn asked Bubbles, but Mitch was hung up on how Mojo was caught.

"Wait, that's how you guys found him?" Mitch asked Buttercup incredulously. "Concrete fell onto the car?"

"Yeah Mitch, that's how we found Mojo." Replied Buttercup, slightly annoyed. "Sometimes, life will be very generous and just up and give you the answer on a silver platter. No thought required."

Mitch just shook his head. "Look Buttercup, obviously, I'm rooting for you and your sisters to win whenever you go off and keep the city safe, but still, you have to agree, that's a pretty lame way for Mojo to get caught."

Buttercup wanted to say something in defense of the way her and her sisters caught Mojo, but she had to agree with Mitch.

"Ok, yes it was pretty lame, but there are times when Mojo can make things very difficult for us. I mean, all those robot drones he had made it difficult for us to even get near the mint let alone get inside it. So every now and then, I do like it whenever it's easy for us to catch Mojo, or anyone for that matter, just for a break from the usually difficult cases we do so it doesn't get...old."

Mitch snickered. "Wait, you mean **you** don't like doing things the hard way all the time? Ms. I-like-to-prove-myself."

Buttercup growled and responded. "You like to do things the hard way a lot too, Mitch, since you're a boy and like to prove your the tough guy who can handle anything, but you've taken shortcuts before as well."

"Ah...Well, I...you see..." Mitch stuttered but gave up a moment later, saying, "Fine, touché."

Buttercup smiled smugly and said sweetly, "Thank you." Before saying normally, "Now come on, it's your turn. I want to beat you before the bell rings."

Mitch grinned. "HA, we'll see about that."

And Mitch did see about that two minutes later...he lost.

* * *

 _240 pm, classroom_

Ms. Keane just finished a math lesson and everyone was handing in their work so they could have the last 20 minutes of class to just chat with their friends. Most of the kids had already begun talking even before the first few students had turned in their papers and by the time Blossom had floated up to Ms. Keane with her work along with Buttercup and Bubbles', everybody was talking.

"Here's our work Ms. Keane." Said Blossom.

"Thank you Blossom."

Ms. Keane looked over the girls' math assignment quickly before saying, "Splendid as always Blossom. Good job."

Blossom smiled proudly at that while Ms. Keane went on, "Bubbles is doing well too, but it seems like Buttercup is still struggling a bit."

Blossom nodded. "Yeah, but she has done pretty well for someone who has been teaching herself this whole time."

Ms. Keane blinked in surprise hearing this. "Wait, you mean you and Bubbles aren't helping her?"

"She won't let us Ms. Keane, you know how stubborn she is." Blossom explained.

Ms. Keane sighed. "Yes, you're right about that." She glanced over at Buttercup talking with Bubbles and Robin about something after saying this. "Well, if by some miracle you convince her to accept your help..."

"Oh yes, of course Ms. Keane." Blossom responded.

Ms. Keane smiled in approval before changing the subject. "I heard that the mayor has already commissioned funds to repair the Mint and the surrounding buildings around downtown after Mojo's attack."

Blossom nodded. "Yeah, I heard that too."

"Why do you think Mojo robbed the Mint instead of a bank like he usually does?"

Blossom shrugged. "Couldn't really say, but when we caught him, he did have several of those money printing plates with him. If I had to guess, I'd say he wanted to start a counterfeit operation."

"Oh my." Said Ms. Keane. "Well, it's a good thing you girls caught him then. With a little bit of luck to boot as well." She finished with a little bit of amusement.

Blossom blinked at this however and asked, "You're referring to the concrete that fell and hit the car, right?"

Ms. Keane nodded. "Yes, that's right."

Blossom rubbed her chin in thought before saying, "You know, I've been thinking about that and I'm not so sure it was just luck."

Ms. Keane raised an eyebrow. "Why do you say that?"

"Well, the building that the chunk fell from was within line of sight of the AA drones that fired at us but I don't think they ever fired in that particular direction." Blossom explained.

"Oh?"

"Yeah. Also, every other building that was hit by the drones, and had chunks of concrete missing, had scorch marks on them where they were hit. The chunk that hit the car however, the building it fell from had no scorch mark on it. I know this because later that same day, after school and we went out on our afternoon patrol, this thought occurred to me so I flew over there to check it out to see if I was right and I was. At the time, I just thought it was a little strange but now I really want to know what caused that chunk of concrete to fall because the drones weren't the cause of it."

Now Ms. Keane rubbed her chin in thought. "Hm. This is an interesting conundrum you've got here Blossom, you're right. What do Bubbles and Buttercup think about it?"

Blossom shook her head, saying, "I haven't told them this yet. Until I get more, uhh, pardon the pun, concrete evidence supporting this hunch of mine, I don't want them trying to figure something out that may not even matter."

"Hmm, well, bad pun aside, I do understand your reasoning for doing that. But remember Blossom, two, or in your case, three heads are better that one. So if you continue having trouble figuring this out, consider bringing your sisters in on it. You never know, maybe they could look at it from a different perspective you wouldn't have thought of and it would help you figure it out."

Blossom smiled and nodded, "Alright Ms. Keane, I will and thanks for the advice."

Ms. Keane smiled back and said, "Anytime."

The bell then rang and the children left the room. Blossom waved to Ms. Keane and left as well to catch up with Bubbles and Buttercup, who were already waiting for her outside, to begin their afternoon patrols.

* * *

After the girls had been patrolling for a hour, they regrouped at the center of town, above the city's tallest building.

"Alright girls, everything looks fine for now but let's do one more sweep before heading home. I'll stay in the city, Bubbles you check the hills this time, and Buttercup, you check the coast." Said Blossom.

"Hey wait, I love going near the ocean. Why do I have to check the hills this time?" Bubbles asked.

"Because the last time you checked the coastline, you brought home a baby whale to keep as a pet." Buttercup replied.

Bubbles just gave Buttercup a flat stare, while Blossom said, "You know, believe it or not, I actually forgot about that. I thought we could just switch things up a bit, but now that Buttercup's reminded me of that, it's a good idea. So, yes Bubbles, you're searching the hills."

Bubbles sighed. "Fine, I'll search the hills."

With that settled, the girls split up to search their allotted areas.

* * *

As Bubbles began her patrol, she couldn't help but be a little grumpy.

"Because last time you checked the coastline, you brought home a baby whale." She mocked. "I haven't brought home a single animal since that fiasco, but no, they're never gonna let me live that down. Not to mention, the forest has a lot of animals too. If they really want to make sure I don't bring home any more animals, why not have me patrol the city where the chances of me finding an animal are slim to none."

Just then, Bubbles saw a dark blue streak of light down in the woods. She realized that it was Boomer almost immediately and she stopped to see what he was doing. She also made sure she was far enough away so that he wouldn't notice her. Bubbles could see that Boomer was flying rapidly around the woods but couldn't make out what he was doing from above the trees. After thinking it over, and after making sure Brick and Butch weren't in the immediate area, Bubbles decided to fly down into the tree tops to see what Boomer was doing. After she flew down, Bubbles could see that Boomer had vines wrapped around his shoulders and was currently cutting another vine from a tree with his laser eyes.

"Alright, that should be enough and I don't see anymore living vines around here. I wonder why Brick wants all these vines in the first place anyway." Boomer just shrugged his shoulders before taking off back towards his brothers.

Bubbles floated out of her hiding spot and said out loud, "Wow Boomer, you sure like to think out loud don't you." Then Bubbles giggled softly to herself. "Of course, I'm guilty of doing that too at times, but now I'm curious why Brick wants all those vines myself."

Bubbles then took off after Boomer but made sure he didn't see her.

* * *

Eventually, Bubbles followed Boomer to the edge of a cliff where she could see Brick and Butch sitting on the ground near a pile of vines but she couldn't tell what they were doing. Boomer floated up to them and said, "Here Brick, these are the last of the vines I could find that were still alive."

Brick looked up and said, "Ah, good Boomer, thanks. Just set 'em down here."

As Boomer set the vines down, Bubbles snuck back up into the tree tops so she could see what they were doing. After finding a perch where she could see them clearly but also keeping herself hidden, she could see Brick and Butch were tying the vines together into one long vine. Bubbles raised an eyebrow in confusion as to why the boys were doing this, but fortunately for her, Butch was just as confused because he asked the question that was on her mind.

"Brick, can you please tell us why we're doing this now?"

"Yeah, sure." Brick said as he tightened the final knot. "We're going bungee jumping."

"What?" Said Butch.

Bubbles blinked in surprise and said softly to herself, "Huh?"

Then Boomer asked, "What's bungee jumping?"

"Basically," Brick began, "you tie a rope, chord, or vine, or anything else that has a little springy-ness to it, to your ankles, then you jump off of a high place, you fall to the ground but before you hit the ground, the chord, or whatever you tied to your ankle, stretches and that springs you back up and then that repeats like 5 or 6 times."

"Oh." Was all Boomer said in response.

"Ok, why are we doing this exactly? In case you forgot Brick, we can fly." Said Butch a little irritated.

Brick held up his hand and said, "Easy Butch, we're going to make it more interesting than just jumping off a cliff. We're going to add target practice to it."

Butch raised an eyebrow and said, "What? How?"

"We're going to set up targets on the ground. One of us will then jump off and, while we're swinging, try to hit as many as possible. On the rebound back up, the other two will throw stones up and over the edge of the cliff and we'll try and hit those. Your score will be the combined total of the ones hit on the ground and the ones hit in the air. You follow me?" Brick finished.

Butch thought about it for a moment, then shrugged his shoulders and said, "Yeah, alright, that sounds like fun." Then he smirked. "Giving me another chance to beat you bro?"

Brick gave Butch a flat look. "Funny, really funny."

"How long are we going to do this for Brick?" Boomer asked.

Brick glanced at Boomer and said, "Ehh...either until we get bored or until the vine breaks I guess."

Boomer shrugged and said, "Alright, let's go for it."

* * *

Bubbles watched the boys play their game for about an hour with a bright smile; not only did they come up with an activity that didn't involve harassing Townsville or causing property damage, but it was a relatively normal activity that anyone could do...well, normal for anyone with superpowers anyway, and they were having fun doing it on top of everything else. In Bubbles' eyes, this was another good sign that maybe the boys could become good, or at the very least, they could all peacefully coexist.

After watching for a little while longer, Bubbles realized that she would have to meet up with her sisters soon or they would come looking for her, so she began to quietly sneak away but not before casting one last look back and smiling again at the boys having fun.

* * *

After meeting back up with Blossom and Buttercup, Bubbles could hardly wait to tell her sisters what she saw, they weren't going to believe her.

"Alright girls, anything to report?" Blossom asked.

"Nah. The coastline looks good." Replied Buttercup. "How about you Blossom?"

"Ehh...one or two litter bugs, but other than that, nothing." Said Blossom. "Bubbles, how about you?"

Bubbles giggled and said with a bright smile, "You two aren't going to believe this but-"

"Don't tell us you found another animal." Buttercup interrupted.

Bubbles stopped for a moment before getting an angry look and saying, "I haven't brought home a single animal since that whole baby whale fiasco Buttercup so can you please just drop that?"

Buttercup held up her hands and said, "Alright, alright, sheesh. It's just that, whenever we came back from patrol and you had the kind of smile you have on your face right now, it was because you found some kind of animal."

Blossom just shook her head before turning back to Bubbles. "Ok Bubbles, what were you saying?"

Bubbles took a deep breath to calm down then turned back to Blossom. "While I was patrolling out in the woods, I saw Boomer flying around."

This immediately got Buttercup and Blossom's attention.

"What? What was he doing?" Blossom asked.

"Wait, just Boomer? Where were Brick and Butch?" Buttercup asked.

"Calm down girls, they never saw me. As to what Boomer was doing, he was collecting vines and wrapping them around his shoulder. After he had enough, I followed him to a cliff where Brick and Butch were tying them together into one long strand. Brick then explained that they were combining target practice with bungee jumping; one would jump off and blast targets on the ground, then as they sprang back up, the other two would throw rocks out and those would get blasted too. After combining those two numbers, that would be your score."

"Hold on a second, did you actually watch them do this?" Asked Buttercup.

Bubbles nodded. "Yeah, for about a hour."

"What?" Said Blossom surprised. "You watched the boys play a game for a hour instead of patrolling the woods?"

Bubbles rubbed the back of her head sheepishly and said, "Uh, yeah, I guess I did do that, but, Blossom, think about what I just said. The boys, well actually, it was Brick's idea, so Brick came up with an activity for three of them to do that didn't involve harassing Townsville or fighting us or causing any sort of destruction whatsoever, that anyone, well, almost anyone, could come up with just for fun. I mean, do you see what I'm trying to say?"

Blossom stared at Bubbles for a moment before she let out a breath she was holding and said, "Yes Bubbles, I do understand what you're trying to say. In fact, I'm amazed." Blossom began smiling as she continued. "I never would've thought the boys could come up with something that...unique. That's a very good sign too. If they can come up something like that to keep themselves entertained without wanton destruction..."

Bubbles nodded happily. "I know, that's wonderful right?"

Blossom nodded back. "Mm-hm. It is."

"And you know, if you think about it, the game the boys came up with actually sounds like fun." Buttercup added.

Bubbles laughed. "Butch said the exact same thing after Brick explained what they were going to do."

Buttercup scoffed at that comment but did glance in the direction of the woods with a small smirk.

Blossom smiled. "I wish we could end every patrol with something amazing like this. But let's head home now. It's getting close to dinner and I'm hungry."

"I second that." Said Buttercup.

"Ditto." Said Bubbles.

The girls flew back home with big smiles on their faces and an even greater hope of the boys reforming from their evil past.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

 **Sorry for the long wait again guys. I have a lot of stuff to deal with right now so I can only update when I get the time. That said, we're getting back into the main plot again so enjoy.**

* * *

 _November 12, 4 am_

A man in his forties and wearing a white lab coat is running for his life while cradling his bleeding left arm. The main power is out and the only lighting in the building now is the emergency lighting. What's worse is that the man and all of his colleagues have been locked in by the security system with this...thing.

The thing in question was a monster they were contracted to create by Dick Hardly to hunt down and destroy the PPG, and now that he thought about it, the RRB now too since they helped the girls catch him on Halloween. Hardly wanted revenge on the PPG for an incident in the past and, taking a page from Mojo-jojo and HIM creating the RRB, which were the closest either of them had ever come to successfully destroying them, wanted to create a creature using the infamous Chemical-X. Personally, none of the scientists had an issue with the PPG and had no reason to want them destroyed, but Hardly told them he would make it worth their while. He claimed he could pay them each $10 million upon the completion of the project and to prove he had the money to do so, he paid $5 million of it up front to all 30 of them. Everybody was a bit dubious that he could but after checking their accounts and saw that the money had indeed been deposited, they believed he could follow up on his promise. Except, what they didn't know, was that Dick only had $150 million saved up from all of his 'successes' in life, and most of it was stolen from other colleagues he had worked with in the past. He didn't have the other $150 million but it didn't matter, he had no intention of paying them the rest since he planned to have them all killed by the end of the project by the very creature they had created.

A mere 20 minutes ago, they saw on the monitors that the creature was showing signs of consciousness, as well as cognitive thought, and was beginning to awaken. They weren't quite ready to let it loose so they attempted to sedate it but something went wrong. The computer program monitoring the growth of the monster said that sedating the monster went against protocol and aborted the process. The scientists kept trying to force the program to do it anyway but after the fifth time, a lockdown protocol was initiated and locked everyone inside the lab. The loud noises of the lockdown procedure woke the creature completely and it started to struggle inside the tank it was growing in. Eventually, the creature began building up a large amount of energy, making its body glow a white-ish, violet color, before letting the energy out all at once, shattering the tank it was in and destroying everything, and killing everyone, ten in total, within a 40 foot radius. But it soon became clear that the ten that were killed out right were the lucky ones. The other 20 that survived had to endure the horror of being the creature's first meal.

A scream of terror was heard from somewhere in the makeshift laboratory followed by a menacing roar. Their escaped experiment had caught and killed another member of the team. After pausing for a moment to acknowledge his colleague's death, the wounded scientist headed for the central control room of the lab. Upon his arrival, he felt something grab his shoulder. Before he could let out a scream however, a hand covered his mouth.

"Shhhhh! Winston, it's me, Clair."

Winston let out an audible sigh and said, "Jesus Clair, are trying to kill me before the monster does? I nearly had a heart attack."

Clair was in her early thirties and had several cuts on her face. She was far enough away from the initial blast to survive but was hit by shrapnel and broken glass from the destroyed tank. After hearing Winston's complaint, she let out a dry chuckle and said, "I think death by heart attack would be a blessing at this point, don't you think?"

Winston sighed and nodded. "Fair point. Here, help me get inside."

"What? Shouldn't we be trying to escape right now? Why do you want to enter the central control room?"

"Because, the building is on lockdown right now. We need to override the lockdown before we can get out."

Winston managed to jimmy the lock on the control room door and he and Clair went inside. Winston found the main computer terminal while Clair stood watch for the monster. As Clair was standing watch, she heard several more people scream in horror as the monster found and killed them, followed shortly by the monster roaring. Clair was mentally kicking herself. Why did she get involved in something like this? Why did she let herself work for someone and apply her skills to something as low and petty as revenge? Oh right, the money. She always found herself working on a project more because of the paycheck rather than the benefits the project had for mankind. She has tried to change that mentality for the past few years but she always seems to take the money in the end.

Clair heard a loud, echo-y, clicking sound followed by a loud roar, then the sound of another human scream being cut short. Clair shivered at the sounds that the creature made. This creature that they've created was unnatural...even for something that was bioengineered, it was unnatural. From the way it looked, with it's long, slender body, ghastly white skin, and no eyes, the way it could move, which was flight or some sort of levitation possibly because of the Chemical-X, to the way it sounded, making these echo-y, clicking sounds that she had just heard. Even though it was a monster, everything about it was unnatural. And even though she and everyone else did the majority of the work making sure the creature was healthy as it grew in its chamber, Hardly was the only one who knew how it was going to turn out. He never let anyone see the final design of the creature or what abilities it would have.

Suddenly, she heard Winston curse. "That bastard!"

Clair quickly turned around and waked over. "What? What's wrong?"

"Hardly set up the security system to lock us inside when the creature woke up!"

Clair stared at Winston in shock. "He what?! Why?!"

Winston buried his face in his hands. "He said that when the monster was ready to be released, it was going to be hungry and the first thing it would want to do was eat. He said he already had a meal planned for it but it turns out that meal was us. He set up a lockdown protocol to engage if we ever tried to sedate the creature when it showed signs of waking up so that we couldn't get out. That way it could feed at its leisure."

Clair was visibly shaking in terror. "But, he's trapped the monster too. How does the lockdown know when to disengage so that it can escape? I doubt he would've had us create this thing to destroy the PPG and the RRB just to trap it inside the lab."

Winston shook his head. "The monster isn't trapped Clair. The lockdown is just meant to keep us locked inside with it, it can leave whenever it wants."

Clair looked like she was about to cry and said desperately, "Well...o-override the lockdown so we can get out!"

"I don't think I can. Hardly put safeguards in the program so no one can get in!"

Suddenly, they both heard a low growl. They both froze in terror before they slowly turned around, but before either of them could consciously recognize the monster's face in the doorway, the monster tore through the wall, grabbed Clair, and slipped back out with her screaming. Through the dust and debris, all Winston could hear was Clair screaming before a sickening crunch cut her off. After hearing that, Winston jumped up and ran out the door, or rather the gaping hole in the wall. As he was running, he saw a stack of gas and propane tanks that they were using to power several large generators to stay off the electrical grid as much as possible and provide fuel for their lab burners. A thought went through his head upon seeing them, 'if I'm dying today, I'm taking that thing with me. Fuck you and your revenge Hardly!'

Winston reached the tanks and opened as many of the valves on the propane tanks as he could and pushed over a few of the gas cans spreading the flammable liquid all over the floor to make sure the fire had plenty of fuel to burn as well as to ensure it could spread quickly to the rest of the tanks. However, the sound of claws on concrete made him stop. Letting his shoulders drop, Winston slowly turned to see the creature's slender form low to the ground in a pounce position, both of its bloodied, clawed hands were digging into the floor while one of its two scythe blade arms were poised on a nearby metal container for a sturdy pushing point. As Winston reached for the lighter in his pocket, the monster prepared to pounce but then stopped. Its pouncing posture relaxing a little, it sniffed the air and let out a confused warble as to what the smell was.

"I guess the intelligence we gave you is paying off. You know something's wrong, don't you?" Winston suddenly said.

The creature quickly refocused on Winston and let out a low growl but also cocked its head slightly in curiosity.

"We may have signed up to destroy the Puffs and Ruffs," Winston continued, "but after discovering Hardly's treachery, I'm going to take you to Hell with me!" Winston took the lighter from his pocket and put his thumb on the striker.

However, thanks to that very intelligence that Winston just mentioned, the monster was able to recognize the extreme danger it was in and was able to fly away just as Winston pushed the striker down.

* * *

Meanwhile, a few miles away down a country highway, a police car had stopped at a rural gas station to buy gas, coffee, and donuts. Officer Perez was filling his car with gas, while Officer Clark was buying the coffee and donuts. Perez yawned as the tank filled and thought to himself, "How is it that I always seem to get stuck with the 'too-early-to-be-reasonable' shift when someone calls in sick or something?"

The pump then dinged, indicating it had finished fueling, and Perez put the nozzle and gas cap back. He was about to head inside to pay when Clark stopped him.

"Don't worry about it Perez, I already paid for it." Clark handed Perez his coffee.

"Thanks." Perez took a sip and sighed. "Oooh, that's better."

Clark chuckled. "You really don't like the morning shift do you?"

"Nope. Give me anything but the morning shift Clark."

"Why, what's wrong with the morning shift?"

Perez scoffed. "It's hard to wake up and nothing exciting happens ."

"Careful what you say Perez. You don't want to jinx it."

Perez gave his partner a flat look. "What could possibly happen out here in the countryside, this early in the morning, that would be exciting?"

Suddenly, the night sky lit up a bright orange. Perez and Clark spun around to see a giant fireball rising above the tree line a few miles away, followed by a deep, rumbling sound.

"Holy shit, man!" Perez shouted.

"You had to say something didn't you Perez?" Clark asked sarcastically.

Perez just shrugged sheepishly while chuckling.

Clark sighed. "Whatever, just get in Perez, let's go!"

Perez jumped in as Clark started the car. They sped out of the gas station with sirens blaring. As they sped down the country highway, Perez radioed dispatch.

"Dispatch, this is car 54, we're reporting a large fire, possibly an explosion as well, about 2, maybe 3 miles west of Silver Oak Convenience store on Highway 12. Requesting fire trucks and additional officers, over."

"Copy car 54, secure the area upon arrival, additional units will be there shortly, over."

Perez put the radio down as Clark said, "So Perez, exciting enough for ya?"

Perez chuckled, "Well, let's put it this way, I'm wide awake now."

Clark laughed.

Just then, something big and white, darted across the highway leaving a bright, violet energy trail in its wake. Clark hit the brakes and they skidded to a stop after passing through the trail which was now fading away as falling particles of light.

"What the hell was that?!" Shouted Perez.

Clark looked out the window and shrugged. "Beats me." Then a thought occurred to him. "Hey, the Ruffs live out here in the woods don't they? You think it could've been one of them?"

Perez thought about that for a moment, but then shook his head saying, "I don't think so. Neither of them leave a violet energy trail when they fly around."

A second bright, orange flash brought their focus back to the raging inferno out in the woods.

"We'll figure out what that was later," Clark said, "for now though, let's focus on that fireball and getting it contained before it turns into a forest fire."

Perez nodded in agreement.

A few minutes later, Perez and Clarke pulled up to the site.

"Hold on...it's a structure fire. What the hell was built way out here?" Asked Clark.

Perez thought for a moment before saying, "If I remember correctly, there was a small warehouse complex out here but it's been abandoned for years."

Clark glanced at Perez. "And you think that's what we're looking at?"

Perez nodded. "Yeah, it has to be."

Just then, fire trucks and additional police units pulled up. One of the firefighters walked up to Perez.

"Is there anyone still inside?" He asked.

Perez shrugged. "We don't know, we just got here."

The firefighter sighed. "Well, let's hope not." The firefighter then turned and shouted, "Alright guys, link up your hoses and let's go!"

* * *

Over the next few hours, the firefighters battled the blaze until it was finally put out around 8am. Picking through the ashes, they did find a couple bodies that had solely died from the fire, but what bothered everyone was that the majority of the burnt bodies found appeared to have been mauled as well.

"Ok, something's not right here." Said one of the firefighters. "All of the bodies have been burnt, but it looks like most of them were dead before the place went up in flames."

"Yeah." Said Perez. "It looks like they were mauled by an animal before they were burnt."

Suddenly Clark yelled from several yards away. "Hey, it looks like a computer terminal may have survived the blast."

Perez turned. "Are you sure?"

"Well it seems to be the only thing that's still relatively intact here. It was shielded from the blast by this wall. We might be able to get some data out of it."

"Alright, let's send it to the precinct and see what our technicians can find in it." Said Perez.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9. It's still the same day as the last chapter but it starts later in the morning.**

 **Also, sorry for taking such a long time to upload. I had to cover my co-worker's shift at work as well as my own so I've had very little time to actually write.**

* * *

 _November 12, 730 am._

After getting out of bed, cleaned up, and dressed, the girls are sitting at the kitchen table having breakfast when Bubbles asks Blossom what they're learning in school today.

"Hey Blossom, what's Ms. Keane teaching in class today? I forgot."

"We're going to learn the basics of multiplication." Blossom replied.

Buttercup nearly choked on the glass of milk she was drinking from upon hearing that. "Math? Aw man, I hate math."

Blossom rolled her eyes. "Buttercup, you need to go to school to learn new things. Learning new things is what keeps your brain healthy and your mind fresh."

Buttercup looked at Blossom with a raised eyebrow and said, "'It keeps your brain healthy and your mind fresh?' Blossom, how can school be that good for you if you just repeated yourself?"

"No wait Buttercup. I'm pretty sure the brain and the mind are two different things...right Blossom?" Asked Bubbles, although now that she said that sentence out loud, she wasn't so sure anymore.

"Hmmmmm, well, yes and no. It really depends on who you ask and what they believe." Blossom sighed. "Ok, this is going to be a little difficult to put into words on the account that this is a metaphysical concept, but I'll do my best. The brain is the big, gelatinous, blob of grey goo inside your head. It's what allows us to speak, decipher things, read, understand logic, motor skills, controls how the body works, etc. Basically everything we need to be functional, to be alive. That's what it is physically anyway. The mind is...well, uh...it's what makes you, you. Your personality, your memories to an extent, your willpower, and I believe your imagination and creativity as well. Some people even believe it's what houses' your soul. So, in order to keep your mind fresh, and by extent, what makes you who you are, you need to stimulate your brain with new information every now and then."

Buttercup blinked at what Blossom said and thought about it. As much as she hated to admit it, her sister had a point. She never thought about it like that before but one more question popped up in her head.

"Well, if our brains need new information, as you say, 'every now and then', then why do we have to go to school for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week?"

"Because, our brains develop the most between the ages of 2 to the early to mid 20s I believe. The more you learn between those ages, the better off you'll be."

"Oh." Was all both Bubbles and Buttercup could say to that.

"Girls, I know you can fly to school in less than 5 seconds if you need to but do keep an eye on the time." The Professor said suddenly from the living room.

The girls looked at the clock on the wall and saw that it said 7:53.

"Whoops, you're right Professor, thank you. Come on girls." Blossom said quickly and all three of them took off toward school.

A minute later, just as they had reached the school, Buttercup noticed a pillar of smoke out in the woods and pointed to it. "Whoa, look at that. There's something burning out in the woods."

Blossom and Bubbles both turn and notice it as well.

"Hey yeah, you're right Buttercup. I wonder what's burning." Said Blossom.

"Uh, the woods." Replied Buttercup in a smart alec tone of voice.

Blossom gave Buttercup a flat look that clearly said, 'hahaha, very funny.' But before Blossom could verbally say something, Bubbles said, "Oh no, all the animals are losing their homes."

Buttercup groaned softly, "Ugh, again with the animals." Then said louder, "Look Bubbles, if it'll make you feel better, why don't we just fly out there and quickly put it out ourselves, sound good?"

Bubbles nodded happily but before she and Buttercup could take off, Blossom stopped them. "Hold it girls, it looks like the fire's already petering out. That's not a very strong smoke column."

Buttercup glanced at the column of smoke again before turning back toward Blossom and saying, "Maybe it just started."

Blossom shook her head. "No, I don't think so. Even if it did just start, it would look better than that."

Bubbles looked worried still, and noticing this, Blossom added, "That said, we'll keep an eye on it for the next few minutes. If it turns into a billowing cloud of smoke, we'll head out there immediately."

Bubbles visibly relaxed hearing that and smiled, saying, "Thanks Blossom."

Blossom smiled back. "You're welcome. Now come on, let's get inside."

* * *

 _900 am_

At Fuzzy's cabin, the boys are still sleeping after playing that bungee-jump-target-practice game that Brick came up with all afternoon and into the early evening. Incredibly, the vine survived the entire game and the only reason they stopped was because it was getting too dark and they were having trouble seeing the targets on the ground and the rocks thrown off the top off the cliff. After they got back that night, they were amazed that they could have so much fun without causing wanton destruction or picking fights, but they weren't sure yet if it was just a one time thing.

Brick wakes up first, stretching to rid himself of a few kinks in his body and yawns. Looking over towards his brothers, who are still sleeping; Butch on an old tire and Boomer on the couch, he has to crack a half smile.

"I still can't believe we had that much fun doing something that simple." He said to himself. "But, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. It was my idea after all." He finished with a cocky grin. Brick then clapped his hands loudly and yelled, "Alright boys, wake up!"

Butch quickly snapped up and looked in every direction, saying, "Who, what, when, where, why?"

Boomer jerked awake as well, saying, "Whoa, what the-ahhhh!" *THUD* Before he rolled off the couch in surprise and hit the floor. "Ow."

Brick and Butch both laughed at that.

While Boomer was picking himself off of the floor, Butch turned toward Brick and asked, "Dude, why'd you wake us up? I was having this awesome dream where the entire city was made out of candy and we were eating it."

Brick looked at Butch with a raised eyebrow before snickering. "You were dreaming that the city was made of candy? That is the most random thing I've heard out of you yet Butch."

Even Boomer looked over at Butch with a stunned look and said, "Yeah, even I've never had a dream that weird. Are you starting to lose your mind for real?"

Butch scoffed. "Alright, shut up, I don't care what you two say, I was enjoying it." Butch turned back to Brick. "So why did you wake us up Brick?"

"We need to figure out what we're going to do today."

Butch gave Brick a flat look before saying, "You had to wake us up for that?"

"Oh, well, I'm so sorry for wanting your input before making a group decision." Brick said sarcastically.

Butch growled as a response, but before there was an argument, Boomer said, "Well, whatever we end up doing today Brick, can the video arcade be part of it? It's been a while since we've been there."

Brick turned to Boomer with a smirk and said, "Hey yeah, you're right, it has been a while since we've been there hasn't it? Sure, we can do that."

"Sweet!" Boomer said happily.

Butch rolled his eyes and responded, "Pfffffttttt, yeah whatever, what about the rest of the day, huh? The video arcade has NEVER occupied an entire day for us Brick."

Brick rubbed his chin in thought for a moment before saying, "Well, we'll obviously get a bite to eat, maybe we can mess around with a few people, i.e. pull a few pranks, without causing destruction of course. We'll play it by ear Butch, we have padded out entire days just doing that before."

Butch just shrugged as a response and said, "Alright, fine, let's go."

The boys fly out of the cabin and get above the trees. Just before they take off toward the city however, Boomer spots some smoke a couple miles away.

"Hey guys, look. Something's burning over there."

Brick and Butch look at Boomer, then in the direction he's pointing and notice the smoke themselves.

"Hey yeah, he's right. What do you think caught on fire?" Asked Butch.

"Beats me," responded Brick, "let's head over there and find out."

They're a few hundred yards away from the site when they notice police officers everywhere and Brick holds out his arms to stop his brothers.

"Whoa, that's a lot of cops." He then looks down at the tree tops and decides they would be better off if they weren't noticed. "Alright, listen up, we don't want them to see us so we're going to hide in the tree tops and listen in on what they're saying."

"Wait, why do we have to hide Brick? We didn't do anything." Said Boomer.

Brick sighed. "I know that, but they don't, and I doubt they have any reason to believe anything we have to say anyway, so we're hiding. Got it?"

Boomer nodded. "Yeah, ok."

Butch rolled his eyes. "Sure, whatever."

After the boys sneak into the trees and get closer to the perimeter, they see that the burnt remains appeared to be a warehouse of some sort. Wondering what started the fire, the boys then use their super hearing to see if they can pick up any information from the officers talking on the ground. Most of what they overhear however isn't anything of particular interest. Conversations ranged from forensic work to the amount of paper work they would have to fill out back at the station to making jokes about how the rest of the day would be a breeze now since the day started with a raging inferno.

Butch growled quietly and said, "Ok, we've obviously missed the interesting parts of what's happened here. They're mostly just talking about what they're going to do the rest of the day now."

Boomer nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I think they only way we'll find out what caused the fire at this point is if we fly down there and ask one of them."

"Yeah, I think you're right Boomer," said Brick, "but we're obviously not going to do that. As far as we know, they'll try and pin it on us since we do live out here." Boomer and Butch both nodded in agreement on that. Brick then said, "Anyway, let's just head into the city now."

But just as the boys were about to take off, their super hearing finally picked up an interesting conversation.

"Perez, it must have been the Ruffs you saw dart across the highway, they do live out here."

This made the boys pause and they looked down at a small group of officers at the base of the tree they were hiding in.

"Frank, whatever Clark and I saw, it did leave an energy trail like the Puffs and the Ruffs do when they fly, but I'm telling you it wasn't any of them. It was something else."

"Well, what else could it have been? The six of them are the only ones who leave an energy trail in their wake, right?"

"Yes, you're right, but none of them leave a violet energy trail. The girls' energy trails are light blue, pink, and light green, while the boys' are dark blue, red, and dark green."

"Well, maybe the boys were flying close together and their color trails combined or something."

Perez shook his head. "Frank, we've all seen the girls fly around the city like that and their color streaks never combined to make a new color. Even when they've done a combination attack where they quickly fly around one another, their colors never merge. You can still pick out their individual colors. Also, on top of all of that, when their energy trails disappear, they disappear cleanly, same with the boys. This violet one dissipated into light particles that fell to the ground like snow."

The group of officers looked back and forth between one another, obviously troubled by what Perez said.

"You know Perez, now that I think about it, you're right. The girls' color streaks have never merged together into a new color and their streaks do disappear cleanly." Stated Frank. "But then what did you and Clark see?"

Perez shook his head. "I'm not sure. When we get back to the station, we can look through the dash-cam footage for it because I know we had it on when it happened."

All the officers nodded in agreement on that, then walked back over to their vehicles.

As they left, the boys exchanged glances.

"A violet energy trail...that falls to the ground like snow?" Asked Butch.

"Yeah, that is weird." Said Brick while rubbing his chin in thought.

"Violet? Isn't that like a shade of...purple, or something?" Asked Boomer.

Brick glanced at Boomer and nodded. "Yeah, it is. It's a bright shade of purple. Sometimes, you can call a mixture of purple and white violet as well."

The boys look back at the burned warehouse for a moment, then Butch said, "So, whatever they saw, more than likely is what caused the fire?"

"It seems that way, yeah." Responded Brick. After thinking it over for a few moments, Brick shakes his head and says, "But we aren't going to find out what it was anyway, since they did say they would have to look at the dash-cam back at the police station."

"Yeah, and I don't think we can just float in and ask about it." Said Butch.

Brick smirked. "True that. Alright, let's get out of here."

And with that, the boys leave the area, quietly, before rocketing off towards the city.

* * *

 _100 pm._

Professor Utonium was working down in his lab when the phone rang. He walked over to the phone, picked it up, and said, "Utonium residence."

"Professor, this is the chief of police." The voice answered back.

The Professor's eyes widened in surprise and said, "Oh, good morning sir. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

The chief gives a heavy sigh and the Professor asks, "Is everything ok sir? You sound troubled."

"Honestly, no, I'm not ok. Do you recall a couple days ago, the recording that Dick Hardly left for the kids to see?"

The Professor sucked in a breath and said, "Yes, I do. Why?"

"You may want to come down to the precinct and look at a few things."

The Professor closed his eyes in worry and supported himself on the lab table before saying, "Alright, I'm on my way right now. I'll be there shortly."

* * *

 _315 pm._

The boys were currently laughing their butts off on the roof of Malph's shopping center after playing a joke on some poor shopper by picking up his car and moving it 20ft away to a different parking space. What made the simple prank so funny to them wasn't the fact that they moved the car, but the shopper's reaction. He spent almost a full 2 minutes looking for his vehicle before he finally found it and wondered how it got moved. Fortunately, they were able to hold in the laughter until after the shopper left, otherwise, they may have gotten into a little trouble with the police and maybe even the girls which would be a problem, since they did call a cease fire which did include causing zero trouble of any kind. But they burst out laughing as soon as he was out of earshot.

"Did-did you see the look on his face when he finally found it?" Boomer choked out.

"Forget that Boomer. How about his thought process? You could clearly see his thought process play out in his expressions; from the moment he realized it was gone, to looking all around for it, to finally locating it and having this strange combination of relief and 'how the hell did it get over there?'" Said Butch who had stopped laughing but was holding his sides.

Brick wiped away a tear from laughing so hard. "Oh man, that was great. Whew!" Brick took a moment to compose himself before saying, "Alright, let's go get a bite to eat boys."

"Where are we heading?" Asked Butch.

"That burger joint on the pier." Said Brick.

"Aw, sweet! I love that place." Said Boomer.

The boys fly toward the burger joint on the pier but just before they arrived, Butch noticed something familiar on top of a nearby building.

"What the...hey guys, isn't that one of the robots that Mojo had with him when he was robbing the Mint?"

Brick and Boomer stopped and looked back at Butch who was pointing down at the top of a building. Upon looking for themselves, they immediately recognized the AA drone.

"Hey yeah Butch, you're right. It is one of those things." Said Boomer.

"Huh, that's weird. You'd think the police and the girls themselves would've cleaned them all up by now." Said Brick.

"Maybe they just missed it." Said Boomer.

The boys fly down to the drone to get a closer look.

"You guys think it still works?" Butch asked.

Brick just shrugged his shoulders but Boomer floated up to the drone and knocked on it a couple of times. The drone then suddenly made a few deep beeping sounds and began powering up. It began twitching as its mechanical limbs started to spasm, its eyes then lit up a deep red and, after noticing Boomer, focused on him. Since it's last functioning memory was fighting the PowerPuff Girls, the drone made a snap decision that Boomer looked like Bubbles and aimed its laser cannon right at him.

"Whoa!" Yelled Brick.

"Yikes!" Yelled Butch.

The drone charged up its cannon and fired. Boomer barely had enough time to fire his own energy blast at the drone itself before the two attacks met in midair at point-blank range and detonated.

* * *

Meanwhile, on street level, the girls were at a street market buying some food for dinner tonight and had just finished up.

"Alright girls, ready to head back?" Asked Blossom.

"Yeah, I'm set." Said Buttercup.

"Ditto." Said Bubbles.

Suddenly, there was an explosion on top of a nearby building and everybody on street level ducked at the loud sound and several people began running away.

"Whoa, what the heck?! What happened?!" Asked Buttercup.

"I'm not sure but let's check it out." Blossom responded.

The girls flew up to the top of the building and looked around for a moment before Bubbles saw the remains of one of the AA drones that Mojo used in the Mint robbery.

"Hey girls, look. It's one of the drones that Mojo had."

Blossom and Buttercup noticed it as well a moment later.

"What? But I thought we found all of them." Said Blossom.

"Well apparently Blossom, we missed one." Said Buttercup sarcastically.

"Buttercup, this isn't funny. Someone could've been hurt." Blossom replied smartly.

"Why would it blow up now though? It's been a couple of days since the robbery." Said Bubbles.

"That's a good point Bubbles." Said Blossom.

Just then the girls hear a small groan to their right. When they looked over, they were surprised to see who it was. Leaning against a wall, rubbing his head, was Brick.

"Ow. That hurt." He muttered.

Before the girls could make their presence known, Butch suddenly popped up from under some debris and said, "Well, there's something that's never happened to us; one of Mojo's inventions blows up in our face." He said angrily along with a hint of sarcasm.

"Not now Butch." Brick growled. Then added, "And besides, Boomer was the one who blew us up."

Boomer then knocks off part of the drone's steel body that was sitting on top of him and says, "Yeah, after it tried to shoot me, you jerk. Would you have liked it better if it did?"

Brick narrowed his eyes in annoyance and said, "Well, no, but..." Brick's eyes then widen after he noticed the girls, "...oh."

"Uhh, hi boys." Blossom said finally.

Butch flinched when he noticed them and muttered under his breath, "Oh, this will go over well."

Boomer, whose back was to the girls, bent over backwards and said, "Uhh, helloooo-whoa!" Boomer lost his balance and fell down on his back.

Everyone stared wide eyed at Boomer for a moment until Bubbles started giggling and Butch and Brick face palmed in embarrassment.


	10. Chapter 10

**Alright, here's chapter 10.**

 **Now just to explain something, chapters 9 and 10 were originally going to be one chapter but I have this weird thing about really long chapters and NOT having something significant happen during the chapter like say, oh I don't know, fighting a monster *wink wink*, or a huge revelation or secret revealed, so I split it up into two.**

* * *

After Boomer fell down, Bubbles started giggling while Brick and Butch face palmed in embarrassment.

"Hey Boomer," Brick started off, "did it occur to you that you could've turned around instead of bending over backwards to say hi to them?"

Boomer sat up and looked at Brick while rubbing the back of his head sheepishly and said, "Uhh, yeah, actually. I did."

Butch scoffed. "Oh really, when? After your head bounced off the ground?"

Butch gave Boomer a mean look and snickered as well, while Boomer gave him an annoyed groan and said, "You know what, why don't you go play in traffic."

"Ohhh, nice comeback." Butch said sarcastically.

"Bite me!" Boomer yelled back.

Before things could get out of hand, Blossom jumps down between them. "Whoa, guys, wait! Can we not start a fight please? That explosion already scared a few people down on the street."

"As much as I hate to say this, I actually agree with Blossom on this." Said Brick as he pulled Butch back a few feet. "Besides, you two can work it out when we get back home."

Butch glanced at Brick out of the corner of his eye before letting out a sigh and said, "Fine."

Boomer just grunted as his reply. As he started to get up, a hand was held out to him. When he looked up to see who it belonged to, he saw that it was Bubbles.

"Want a hand?" She asked.

Boomer blinked and stared at Bubbles for a second before he shook his head and said, "Nah, I'm alright." Boomer stood up and dusted himself off afterwards.

Bubbles withdrew her hand and said solemnly, "Oh...ok then."

Boomer glanced at her for a moment noticing her tone and added, "But...thanks for asking."

Bubbles glanced back and smiled a little at that. Boomer did the same.

Blossom cleared her throat. "So, what exactly happened up here?"

Brick shook his head before saying, "We were flying down to the burger joint on the harbor to get a bite to eat when Butch noticed the drone up here. We flew down to get a closer look and Boomer floated up to the drone and knocked on its head a couple of times to see if it still worked. Turns out, it did, and, well, you three know what happened after that...KABOOM!"

"Oh." Was all Blossom said to that.

"You see Blossom? There's an example of giving the short version." Said Buttercup.

Blossom turned toward Buttercup and said, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You know exactly what that means. Granted, the Professor does this a lot more than you do, but there are still times when you over explain things where a quick one to two sentences would be enough instead of giving a lecture." Buttercup explained.

Blossom grunted, saying, "S-shut up."

Everybody else who wasn't Blossom and Buttercup, began chuckling at what Buttercup said and Blossom's reaction.

"I mean it. Shut. Up." Blossom said sternly.

Brick shook his head. "Alright, fine, relax." After he regained his composure, Brick asked, "What did you three do today, anyway?"

Surprised at first, Blossom responds, "We just got out of school and picked up some food for dinner tonight. Why?"

"School? Wow, what a waste of a day." Said Brick.

"Thank you." Said Buttercup.

Blossom spun around. "Buttercup, we're not having that conversation again."

Buttercup held up her hands and said, "Chill out, I'm just messing with you girl. Jeez." Blossom just narrowed her eyes.

Meanwhile, Boomer nudged Bubbles and quietly asked, "Is that normal behavior for the two of them?"

Bubbles snickered. "Well, when they get on each other's nerves, yeah it is. But they can get along too."

Boomer just shrugged indifferently. "Whatever you say."

"So boys, what did you three do today?" Buttercup asked in an attempt to get Blossom to focus on something else besides her.

Brick raised an eyebrow before shrugging and said, "Eh, just killed time really. First we actually slept in until 9am on the account we were really tired from doing...uh, something yesterday." Brick didn't want to let the girls know yet that they actually had fun doing something that wasn't destructive so he avoided saying anything about it. Unknown to the boys however, the girls already knew thanks to Bubbles.

Brick went on, "We then flew around for a while before we hit the video arcade and spent a few hours there. Then we pulled one or two minor pranks."

Blossom had to interrupt Brick on that one. "Wait, what pranks?" She said as she narrowed her eyes at him.

Brick flinched. "Relax Blossom, it wasn't anything serious. We made a series of prank phone calls from a pay phone, rigged a few jump-scare traps of something jumping out of some trash cans, and the cliché 'slip on a banana peel/trip over something' prank, you know, the pretty pedestrian stuff."

Blossom raised an eyebrow after Brick finished and asked, "And that entertained you guys all day?"

Brick just shrugged and Boomer said, "Yeah, for the most part, but the best prank was when we moved that guy's car."

Blossom spun around. "Wait, you did what?" Bubbles and Buttercup also glanced at Boomer.

"Boomer!" Yelled Butch while Brick face palmed.

"What?! We didn't steal it or anything, we just moved it to a different parking space."

Blossom turned back to Brick and asked, "What is he talking about?"

Brick sighed. "OK, what we did was simply moved a car from one parking spot to another. We were at Malph's grocery store, some random guy parked his car and went inside. While he was inside, we decided to fly down from the roof, pick up his car, move it, like, 20ft away to a different spot, and when he came back out, we watched him try and find it for about 2 minutes before he finally did and you could see his thought process play out on his face form when he realized it was gone, to when he found it, to asking himself, 'how the hell did it get over there?' Basically, we just did it to have a good laugh."

The girls looked at one another for a moment before Blossom sighed and said, "Ok, I'll let that go because there was no harm done, but still, please don't do something like that again. I know that if I were that guy, I would be really irritated if that happened to me."

"Did anybody see you guys do this?" Buttercup asked.

"Nah." Said Boomer. "Which, now that I think about it, was probably a good thing since the guy could've said we were stealing his car."

Blossom pointed at Boomer saying, "Exactly, that would not have gone over very well guys. You three calling a cease fire isn't officially public knowledge you know. If he did see you, either the police, or we'd, have to do something about it."

Brick looked at the ground for a moment before glancing back up and said, "Well, that's why we were careful."

"Brick!" Blossom said sternly.

"Alright, alright, jeez!" Brick groaned while holding up a hand to emphasize he got the message.

"Thank you." Blossom replied.

"Hey boys, can I ask you a question?" Bubbles suddenly asked.

Everybody turned to Bubbles and Brick asked, "Uhh, about what?"

"When we were flying to school this morning, we noticed something burning out in the woods. Since you three live out there, did you by chance see what it was?"

This got everybody's attention. "Hey yeah, I completely forgot about that." Said Blossom.

"Yeah, that was weird." Said Buttercup.

The boys glanced at one another before nodding. "Yeah, we noticed it too, and we did fly over to see what it was." Brick explained.

"What was it?" Blossom asked.

"It was a structure fire. I think it used to be a warehouse." Said Brick.

"Wait, a warehouse? Out in the middle of the woods?" Buttercup asked.

Brick shrugged and said, "Hey, I said I think it was. It was pretty much a pile of ash by the time we got there. There were police and firefighters all over the place too."

"Do they know what started the fire?" Blossom asked.

Brick shook his head. "No they didn't, or if they did, we didn't get there in time to hear them talk about it." Brick then paused as he remembered what they did hear. "Although, there was one conversation we heard that bugged us."

"What was that?" Bubbles asked.

"Are you talking about the thing those officers saw darting across the highway?" Asked Boomer.

Brick nodded.

"What thing? What are you talking about?" Blossom asked.

"A couple of the officers saw something dart across the highway on their way toward the fire. Whatever it was, they said it left an energy trail in its wake, similar to ones we all leave, except that it was violet." Brick explained.

The girls stare at the boys with wide eyes.

"What?!" Exclaimed Blossom.

"But that's impossible. The six of us are the only ones who leave energy trails and none of us leave violet ones." Said Buttercup.

"That's what we were saying to ourselves as well." Said Butch.

"It gets a bit stranger," Brick continued, "when the energy trail dissipated, it broke apart into light particles that fell to the ground like snow. None of ours do that."

Blossom was rubbing her chin in thought. "Ok, this is strange. What other being do we know about that can leave an energy trail?"

"Beats me." Said Buttercup.

"Mmm-mmm." Muttered Bubbles while shrugging her shoulders.

Just then, the Professor's voice was heard. _"Brick, are you and your brothers there?"_

Everybody turned toward Brick while Brick was looking down at the walkie he had strapped to his belt. He looked back at Blossom. "I thought you were supposed to be holding on to that walkie Blossom."

"I do Brick, but when we're at school or saving Townsville, I leave it with the Professor."

Brick unclipped the walkie from his belt just as the Professor tried again. _"Brick, are you there?"_

Brick pushed the transmit button. "Yeah, yeah, we're here. What's up?"

 _"I need the three of you to come to our house, it's important. The girls will be home shortly as well."_ Said the Professor.

"What's important, what's the problem?" Asked Brick.

"Professor, is something wrong?" Asked Blossom.

 _"Blossom, you're there?"_

"Yeah, we all are. Long story short Professor, we just bumped into the boys but never mind that, what's the problem?"

The Professor sighed, _"We need to talk. See, I just spent the last few hours with the chief of police and, well, the police...found Dick's secret lab."_

Everyone stared at the walkie in stunned silence for a moment before Blossom found her voice. "W-what? They did?"

"Where is it? Tell us where it is and we'll fly out there and level it right now!" Brick demanded.

 _"Brick, it's too late. It's already been destroyed."_ Explained the Professor.

"What?" Brick asked surprised.

 _"It burned down early this morning."_

Everyone glanced at one another before Brick said, "It-it burned down?"

 _"Yes, it did."_ Said the Professor.

"W-where? Where was it?" Asked Blossom.

 _"It was an old warehouse complex out in the countryside."_

This took everyone's breath away. To say they were shocked would be an understatement.

Boomer found his voice and said a little shakily, "Brick, w-we flew over that."

"Yes, Boomer, I know that. Thank you." Brick said in the same tone of voice.

Bubbles looked pale as she put two and two together and said, "So, if that was Dick's lab, and Dick said he created a monster to come after us in that recording he left us, and you three said something about a couple officers seeing something dart across the highway _after_ the fire started...then...umm...well..." Bubbles trailed off because she was too scared to finish. The others were wide eyed as they realized that Bubbles was right. Dick had claimed he had made a monster to come after them and now everything that they just heard seemed to support this.

"Uh-oh." Said Boomer.

"Oh shit." Groaned Butch.

Brick face palmed and groaned before saying to the Professor, "We'll be there shortly Professor." He clipped the walkie back to his belt and rubbed his temple to ease the start of a headache. "So much for your theory Butch."

Butch turned to Brick and said, "What theory?"

"At the mayor's office, after we saw the recording, you said that Dick was probably just trying to mess with our heads by telling us he made a monster to come after us."

"Oh...right...that." Butch let out a long sigh afterwards.

"Alright, let's head back to our house and find out what we're dealing with." Said Blossom.

Everybody nodded and they all took off towards the girls' house.

* * *

 _400 pm._

After arriving at the house, the Professor calls them down into the lab.

"Ok Professor, what are we dealing with?" Blossom asked.

The Professor sighed. "To be honest Blossom, we don't have much to go on. All we have is a damaged hard drive from a computer that was somewhat shielded from the fire blast, that had, from what we could tell, some kind of lockdown protocol, and dash cam footage from one of the police cars of something darting across the road."

"Uh, yeah. We heard the part about the dash cam footage from the cops themselves when we were hiding in a tree at the site this morning." Stated Brick.

"What was the lockdown protocol on the hard drive for?" Blossom asked.

The Professor took a deep breath. "Dick...actually programmed the lab to lock everyone inside when the creature began to wake up. He had hired around 30 people to make this thing and he made it so that they would be the monster's first meal."

"What?!" Everyone exclaimed.

"Yes," the Professor went on, "he intended to murder them all from the start."

"But, w-wait a second." Brick started after getting over his shock, "why would he put the lab on lockdown? The creature would've been trapped in there if it weren't for something blowing up and setting it free."

"No Brick, the lockdown was only strong enough to keep everyone inside. The monster could've escaped anytime it wanted to; Dick left weak points in the lockdown that only the monster would be able to get through."

"What caused the explosion?" Asked Buttercup.

"There was a video file of someone opening the valves on some propane tanks and dumping gasoline onto the floor, as well as a shadow of the creature itself, but the shadow is not very well defined because it was being cast over a jagged section of broken wall, so we don't have a good idea of what the creature looks like. The video seems to indicate that the man realized what Dick had done and decided to try and take the creature with him when he pulled a lighter from his pocket and struck it, setting off all the gas."

The Professor then turns to his computer and plays the video file. There's no sound to the video as it is just an average security camera and those usually don't have sound, but the kids do see a man in a white lab coat frantically opening propane tank valves left and right when he suddenly freezes and slowly turns around. The Professor then points out to the kids the creature's shadow being cast onto a broken section of wall, and just like he said, it's very difficult to make out any distinguishing features. The man then pulls out a lighter and strikes it which causes the screen to go a bright yellow before the video glitches out.

Bubbles whimpers loudly at this point, since she did just watch someone blow themselves up, and the others are either pale or shaking their heads in disbelief.

Blossom finally finds her voice and asks, "W-what about the dash cam?"

"That's what I'm about to show you next."

The Professor pulls up the dash cam video and it starts just as the fireball rises above the trees.

"Holy hell! No wonder that place was a pile of ashes." Butch muttered.

The sound of the car doors opening followed shortly by the car speeding out of a gas station and the officers calling in the fire.

 _"Dispatch, this is car 54, we're reporting a large fire, possibly an explosion as well, about 2, maybe 3 miles west of Silver Oak Convenience store on Highway 12. Requesting fire trucks and additional officers, over."_

 _"Copy car 54, secure the area upon arrival, additional units will be there shortly, over."_

 _"So Perez, exciting enough for ya?"_

 _"Heh heh, well, let's put it this way, I'm wide awake now."_

The kids hear the other officer laugh.

Suddenly something big and white darts across the highway at such high speed that it completely catches the kids off guard with its sudden appearance and apparently the officers too as they slammed on the brakes and went spinning out of control before coming to a stop facing the opposite direction and catching the energy trail dissipating.

Brick was shaking his head. "A violet energy trail and light particles that fell to the ground like snow." He whispered. "That's exactly what that looks like."

"Play that back. Maybe we can get a better glimpse of it in slo-mo or something." Said Blossom.

The Professor shook his head. "We already tried that Blossom, it didn't work. Besides, it entered and left frame so quickly, that it wouldn't have been a good picture anyway."

Everyone became dead quiet for a couple moments before Buttercup said, "Ok, now we know Dick Hardly wasn't kidding. He really did create a monster to come after us. So...what's our next move?"

At first nobody said anything. Then Boomer said, "Should we even...stay in the forest at this point?"

Brick and Butch turn toward Boomer and Brick asks, "What? You mean...live there?"

Boomer nods. "Yeah, should we keep living in the woods? I mean, I'm guessing it would stay in the woods where it has a better chance of hiding, so...yeah, should we?"

Butch glanced at Brick while Brick was rubbing his chin in thought before saying, "You know, I won't lie, that's not a bad idea."

"So we're going to live in the city now?" Butch asked.

"In my opinion, you guys really should." Said Blossom. "At least until we have a better idea of how dangerous this thing really is."

Brick sighed. "That would be the smart thing to do Blossom, you're right. But how would we find out how dangerous it is if we're not out there looking for it?"

Blossom blinked in uncertainty, asking, "What do you mean?"

"We live out there Blossom," Brick continued, "we know the woods pretty well. Once we find some kind of sign that it's been in an area, I'm sure we could track it down, call you three on the walkie after we've narrowed down the search area, and then all of us can pound it into submission. I don't care if Dick Hardly created this thing with Chemical X, I doubt it could survive 6 on 1 odds."

"I agree with you Brick," Blossom began, "but how about 3 on 1? Dick said in the recording that the monster is supposed to be intelligent, right? So who's to say it won't try to avoid you three like the plague until it's ready to fight, or worse, attack you as soon as you do find it because there's a chance, however unlikely, that it is strong enough right now, to fight 3 on 1 odds?"

Brick sighed. He had to give Blossom that one. There was a chance, however unlikely, that it could take on three of them right now even if it was a 'new born.' However, since they now know it was out in the woods, someone would have to be out there as well to track its movements and monitor anything unusual.

"I know Blossom, it is a risk, but if it does come to the second possibility, it attacks us as soon as we get too close, who better to be attacked by it first than the three of us? As much as it will kill me to say this, you and your sisters are smarter than we are, but we are stronger and more resilient than you are. We can take more punishment...well, *ahem*, physical punishment anyway."

The girls raised their eyebrows in confusion for a moment before they remembered what Brick was referring to and couldn't help but giggle for a second.

"Oh," Blossom began, "you mean what happened at the end of our second fight where we-"

"Emasculated us, yes." Brick finished for Blossom in a slightly ticked voice.

Blossom waved her hands. "Ok, ok, sorry."

Brick gave the girls an irritated look while Boomer and Butch themselves looked less than amused at being reminded of that day.

"Grrrrr, anyway," Brick continued, "it would be better for someone to stay out in the woods, at least for a couple days, to keep an eye on things, and possibly even spot it and deal with it sooner rather than later. The longer it has more time to itself, the stronger it will be, right?"

Blossom wanted to argue Brick's point, anything to make him reconsider living in the city rather than in the woods but she couldn't find anything to counter with. Glancing at Boomer and Butch, they seemed to be in a similar mindset as Brick and are willing to go along with it. Glancing at her own sisters, she could tell that they seemed conflicted. They weren't sure what was more important; the boys' safety or the pre-emptive measures of having them stay in the woods.

Blossom sighed in defeat. "Yes, you're right Brick. The sooner we find this thing the better." Then Blossom chuckled. "Besides, we agreed to keep each other in the loop the day we saw Hardly's recording and that would be a little difficult to do if you guys weren't even in the same area this thing could possibly be in."

Everyone chuckled at that.

"Heh, yeah. Good point." Said Brick.

* * *

Several minutes later, as the boys were about to take off towards home, Blossom said to Brick, "Look, Brick...you and your brothers just try to be a little careful. Ok? It is a monster created by Dick Hardly after all and we all know what he's capable of."

Brick looked at Blossom for a moment, surprised that she would be concerned with their well being, but he gave a confident smirk afterward and said, "Don't worry, I remember. If he was as much of an ego maniac as I think he was, he's probably given the monster a similar personality to his own too, along with intelligence, and I'm not so sure I want to deal with another Dick Hardly, that has a monstrous form, and Chemical X, flowing through its veins without a little bit of back up. We will let you know if we find anything. Deal?"

Brick held out his hand for Blossom to shake and Blossom took it. "Deal."

They all nodded to one another and the boys took off for home.

* * *

 **Ok, there's the end of chapter 10. We're getting close to the monster's debut people...stay tuned.**

 **Oh, and please review, I do like reading them.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11, here we go. Are you ready for the monster?**

* * *

Needless to say, the kids didn't sleep very well that night. The boys especially considering the monster was somewhere in their backyard, and who wouldn't have a hard time sleeping when you knew there was something around your house that wanted to kill you. The girls were also having trouble sleeping as well. They really were concerned about the boys' safety and were hoping that they would be alright. At the same time however, part of them knew that the boys would be alright. As much as they hated to admit it, the boys were stronger and tougher than they were. They could take more physical punishment, so, like Brick said, if anyone should be attacked by the creature first, it should be them.

Over the next couple of days, reports of severely mutilated animal carcasses began turning up in the forest. A few of them were near hiking trails and it made the general public a little nervous. In fact, a few hikers began carrying firearms with them when they went out. One hiker reported hearing strange sounds; echo-y clicks and growls in the distance, followed by what almost sounded like an otherworldly roar and the unmistakable sounds of another animal meeting a violent end. The Mayor's office, who knew full well what it was, but felt that a monster created by Dick Hardly to hunt down and kill the Powerpuff Girls and the Rowdyruff Boys should still be on a need to know basis, declared, that until further notice, nobody was allowed to enter the woods do to a 'possibly dangerous animal.' The Mayor's office contacted the boys through the girls via the Hotline and the walkies the kids had and asked them to do some reconnaissance since they did live out there. The boys explained that they had already been doing that for the last couple of days, but they haven't found any signs of the creature outside of the immediate areas where the animals were killed. Either the monster was moving so fast that they couldn't keep up with it, or it was purposely eluding them, and neither of those two possibilities were good.

* * *

 _November 17, mid morning._

The boys were currently out on another recon mission over the woods searching for any signs of the monster whatsoever.

"Jeez, this is getting really old Brick." Said Butch.

"Hey I don't like working when we could be having fun either, but we need to find this thing and kill it. I'm not going to let Hardly have a sense of smug self satisfaction while he's burning in Hell for all eternity." Brick growled.

"Why do you think we can never find it though?" Boomer asked. "I mean, we can find where it has been, like a kill site, but after that, it just seems to vanish."

"It's being careful Boomer. Like Blossom said, it'll try to avoid us like the plague until it's ready to fight. That's why we need to try and find it first before it's ready. That way, we can be done with it and not have to worry about whether or not it can get stronger than us as time goes by." Brick said.

Just then, the boys noticed a flash in the sky. Looking up, they saw some dark clouds moving in and there were lightning flashes accompanying them. Brick then remembered he had heard that a late season storm was supposed to hit today and it looked like it was right on time. While they did need to find the monster as soon as they could, flying reconnaissance in a storm was very difficult and would make the day even more un-fun.

Brick sighed. "Alright boys, looks like that weather report is coming true. Let's head back home to wait out the storm, then we can get back out here to look for this thing."

Boomer and Butch both nodded, they didn't like the idea of flying in the rain anyway, and they all went back home.

* * *

 _Pokey Oaks, noon._

The storm was in full force by mid day and all the kids in Pokey Oaks had to have recess indoors because of the heavy rain and lightning. While the kids didn't mind playing inside, being outside was more fun because there was more to do and more space to do it in.

"This is unusual for a storm like this to hit this late in the year, isn't it?" The girls' friend Robyn asked.

"Yes Robyn, it is." Blossom responded. "Normally storms like this hit sometime in Spring and early Summer."

Robyn and Blossom go back to playing house when they heard Mitch, who was playing monster with a couple other boys nearby, say, "Maybe Mother Nature is just throwing a tantrum because Old Man Winter is getting ready to come in."

Blossom and Robyn both glance at Mitch before Blossom scoffs and says, "I've never heard someone describe it like that before Mitch, but maybe that's exactly what it is."

Mitch grinned and said, "Of course that's what it is."

Blossom and Robyn both gave Mitch a flat look and Blossom said, "Alright, let's not get too full of ourselves Mitch."

Just then, a bright flash of light, followed immediately by a loud crash of thunder, that made the building shudder and the lights flicker, had caused everyone in the room, Ms. Keane included, to duck down.

Looking out of one of the windows, Robyn said, "I hope the storm passes by soon. I really don't like loud thunder."

Blossom sighed, "Not very many people do."

* * *

 _Fuzzy's cabin, 250 pm._

The boys were trying to pass the time by playing poker again. The last time they played poker however, Butch went a little stir crazy so Brick and Boomer were keeping an eye on him this time. The storm continued to rage outside and every now and then, there would be a loud crash of thunder that made the cabin shudder.

Glancing out the window at the storm, Butch muttered, "You know, it never ceases to amaze me how this cabin that Fuzzy made is able to survive storms like this one."

"Well, if that crazy hillbilly has only one talent, it must be building small cabins." Brick explained. "Surviving the wind is no big deal really, there are trees everywhere that break up the wind pretty well. What I'm more impressed with is the fact that there aren't any leaks. I mean, worse storms have blown through here than this one and yet we've never had to deal with a single leak."

Boomer laughed. "Well, Fuzzy has roughed it out here far longer than we have. Maybe because of that, he's learned how to make a sound roof."

Butch shrugged his shoulders while Brick nodded and said, "Eh, I guess that makes sense."

Another loud crash of thunder sounded over head, but this time, something hits the roof of the cabin. The boys jerk at the hard hit and look up. They can actually see where something had hit the roof because one of the support beams had a big crack in it and the roof itself had been pushed in a little.

Brick groaned. "Well, so much for no leaks. I'm willing to bet water will start coming in through there eventually."

Butch nodded in agreement and Boomer asked, "What do you think that was?"

"Eh, probably a branch that the wind knocked down." Brick explained.

But before anything else could be said, the boys heard a strange sound. It was very subtle so they couldn't tell exactly what it was but they knew it wasn't the storm. It sounded like an otherworldly moan of some kind. What made it worse was that it had some kind of unnatural echo to it as well, almost like the echo HIM had whenever he spoke.

The boys glanced at each other before Boomer asked, "Uhh, what was that?"

Brick shook his head. "Beats me."

"I almost want to say it was an animal, but what animal sounds like that?" Butch asked.

Brick shook his head again. "I don't know. I never heard that sound before. If there is an animal that sounds like that, it's new to me."

Boomer got up from where he was sitting and floated over to the window to look outside. The rain was still coming down pretty hard so visibility wasn't very good, but he could still see things clearly up to 100 yards away though. Boomer rubbed his chin in thought, what had made that sound?

"See anything?" He heard Butch ask.

Boomer glanced back at his brothers before looking back out the window and shook his head. "Nope. Nothing but rain."

Boomer then turned around and started to float back over to continue playing their card game when Brick noticed something over Boomer's shoulder out the window. A large shadow had just come out from the nearby undergrowth and charged at blinding speed toward the cabin. Eyes wide in shock, Brick shouted, "BOOM-" but was cut off as the shadow crashed through the wall and ripped the cabin apart.

The next thing Brick knew, he and Butch were buried under what was left of Fuzzy's cabin and rain was beginning to soak their clothes. Pushing a section of the roof off of them, Brick and Butch looked up and saw a large silhouette of a creature with arms that ended in scythe blade like claws, a long, slender body, thighs that tapered down to what looked like two extra tails, so it had no feet and was floating, its lower jaw was split at the chin and had what looked like tusks growing from them, the top of its head loosely resembled that of a bird, and it appeared to have no eyes.

They then heard something that made their blood go cold. "HEY, LET ME GO!" Looking up, around the creature's chest, they saw that it was holding Boomer in a second pair of arms that ended in clawed hands, and Boomer was struggling to get free. Looking down in fright at his brothers, Boomer shouted, "BRICK, BUTCH, HELP!" The creature then quickly flew away, leaving behind a violet energy trail. The boys' eyes widened in horror as they realized that this was the monster that Dick Hardly had created to come after them and the girls, and it had just kidnapped their brother.

"BOOMER!" Brick and Butch shouted at once and they both took off at top speed after them.

Flying through the woods as fast as they could, Brick turned to Butch. "Butch, fly above the trees and see if you can cut this thing off!"

Butch looked at Brick in surprise. "What?! You want to split up?! But what if-"

"This is no time to argue Butch, just do it! Try to get ahead of it and slow it down!"

Butch gritted his teeth but did as Brick ordered, he flew above the trees and out of sight. Brick refocused on what was in front of him and he caught a glimpse of the violet energy trail to his left and veered in that direction. "There you are!"

As he continued on, several other animals came running towards him, obviously terrified of the monster that just passed through. The monster then suddenly flew into view in an upcoming clearing and stopped. It brought its large scythe claws down, hard, and swiped rapidly with its hands as well. It then bent over, leaning its head down and Brick then heard the most horrifying sound he had ever heard in his life; Boomer yelled, no, screamed in pain, and Brick realized that the monster was trying to tear Boomer limb from limb. Seeing red, Brick let out a homicidal scream of rage and blasted the monster with an energy blast that immediately made it fly away, into the darkness of the woods.

Brick flew into the clearing and found Boomer lying on the ground, gripping his right shoulder in pain. When he got up to him, Brick saw that Boomer's arm was hanging loosely, the monster had obviously dislocated his shoulder, and was also bleeding. Brick could also tell that Boomer was trying really hard not to cry.

"BOOMER! BOOMER, ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!"

"AHHHHH! THIS HURTS! THIS REALLY HURTS! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Brick flinched. He didn't like hearing Boomer scream like that. "Y-yeah, I can tell." Brick then heard what sounded like the sound that they and the girls made when they first take off from the ground; that 'chiu-ing' sound but it sounded a little different. When he turned in the direction that the sound came from, he saw the violet energy trial in the distance coming back for them. Eyes wide, Brick turned back to Boomer and said, "Boomer, I know you're in a lot of pain, but you've got to get up, we're sitting ducks here!"

Boomer tried to get up, but stumbled. "I'm trying!" At this point, Boomer wasn't even trying to hold in the tears anymore, he had never been this hurt before and it was actually scaring him. Brick bent down and hoisted him up from under his left shoulder.

"I've got cha bro."

Boomer looked at Brick with a half smile and said, "Thanks." But then his eyes widen in horror when he sees the energy trail in the woods. "Brick, over there!"

Brick turns to his right and sees the energy trail himself. It's less than 50 yards away from them and was getting closer. Brick used his free hand to fire a couple of energy blasts into the woods and Boomer was firing his eye beams but they couldn't quite hit it. Suddenly, the monster darted out of cover and came straight toward them at such blinding speed that they barely had the time to blast it point blank range but they finally managed to hit it. But something strange happened; the monster glowed a bright shade of pink-ish violet for a moment before it broke apart into violet particles of light that dispersed harmlessly around them.

At first stunned, Boomer asked, "What-what happened to it?"

Brick shook his head and stuttered back, "I-I'm not...s-sure."

"Did-did we kill it?"

Both boys looked around for a couple more moments when suddenly they heard the chiu-ing sound coming from behind them. When they turned around, the monster was already in their faces and had slammed them both over 40 yards away into a 30 foot tall cliff. Boomer hit the cliff, dislocated shoulder first, and the pain was so great that he let out a silent scream and it almost made him pass out. Brick was a little dazed from both the blow from the monster and from slamming into to cliff. Reaching up to rub his head, he realized his baseball cap was gone and when he pulled his hand away and looked at it, he saw blood. That would've freaked him out if he hadn't noticed Boomer immediately afterward and he quickly crawled over to him.

"BOOMER, ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!"

Boomer just groaned in pain. Out of the corner of his eye, Brick saw the monster fly right up to them and raised both of its scythe claws. Brick instinctively covered Boomer and waited for the blow when there was a sudden explosion. Looking back up, he saw that the monster had been stunned but quickly shook it off and looked in the direction it had been attacked from only to have Butch kick it squarely in the face, sending it flying back several yards.

Shooting a look of pure rage at the monster, Butch shouted, "I DON'T KNOW WHAT THE HELL YOU ARE, BUT STAY AWAY FROM MY BROTHERS!"

Butch pointed his hand toward the monster with the intent of blasting it with energy blasts. After the monster had regained it composure, it began stalking toward him. Butch let the first energy blast fly and it hit the monster in the chest. The monster stumbled but quickly shook it off and came for him again. Butch blasted it again, this time, hitting it in the face, but again, the monster just shrugged it off. Butch fired a third blast, but this time, the monster used its scythe claws to block the blast, and in the same motion, spun around once, and using the momentum of the spin, brought it scythe claws down and tried to crush him. Butch jumped back a few feet before bringing up his shield. The monster then preceded to pummel the ever loving crap out of Butch's shield and Butch was having to really push himself to keep the shield up. He wanted to wait for just the right moment when the monster tired itself out from pummeling his shield before he fought back, but then the unthinkable happened; the monster managed to crack his shield. Time seemed to slow for a moment as Butch stared in disbelief as his supposedly impenetrable shield was about to give out. The monster raised its scythe claws once more and brought it down so hard that not only did it break through, but it also hit close enough to Butch that it sent him flying back several feet, landing right next to Boomer and Brick. Butch was beyond stunned. He couldn't believe it; nothing, but nothing, has ever gotten through his shield before. Not even the girls' mega-blast can get through it and that can vaporize a third of Townsville at full power.

Before Butch could ponder on this disturbing revelation any further however, Brick shouted, "BUTCH, GET UP! IT'S COMING FOR US!"

Butch snapped out of his stupor and quickly got back to his feet, looking at the monster which was now advancing toward them again. The monster reared back with its scythe claws again when Brick shouted, "BLAST IT, NOW!"

All three of the boys let loose with energy blasts, even Boomer, using his good arm, and pelted the monster relentlessly. After several seconds, the monster finally fell to the ground. The boys stopped for a moment to see if it was actually dead but the monster suddenly looked up at them, growled, and then flew at them so fast that the only thing the boys could do was brace for impact...but it didn't come. Instead, they heard the sound of rock falling behind them. Turning around and looking up, they saw that the creature was climbing the cliff. Once it reached the top, it turned around and looked down at them, growled at them again, then roared in anger before it turned around and flew away.

The boys stood at the base of the cliff, staring at the spot where they last saw the monster for several seconds, panting heavily before Butch finally said, "That...was Dick Hardly's monster?!"

"Yeah," Brick said breathlessly, "It was...it had to be."

Butch scoffed, "So much for trying to find it before it attacked, huh?"

Brick gave Butch a flat look before rubbing his face tiredly. "Butch, please, not now."

Just then, they hear something hit the ground. Turning around, they see Boomer lying face first in the mud.

"Boomer!" Brick yelled and was at his side in an instant.

Brick turned him over and Boomer gave him a tired smile and said, rather weakly, "Brick, I don't feel so good." He then let out a tired laugh.

Brick looked his brother over and realized just how hurt he really was, particularly his shoulder. It'd be a miracle if Boomer didn't pass out before they found help. "Don't worry Boomer, we're going to get you fixed up." Brick hoisted Boomer up and supported him from under his left shoulder. Brick turned to Butch to say something but was stopped short when they heard the monster let out a roar in the distance. Glancing nervously in the direction of the roar, Brick turned back to Butch and saw that his face was a bit pale. Boomer even whimpered a little at the sound too. Brick shook his head and addressed Butch.

"Ok Butch, listen up." Butch turned to Brick and gave him his full attention. "We need to get to the girls' house so that the Professor can patch Boomer up and fill them in on what happened. But before we head there, I want you to nuke the forest when we get above the tree line. Understand?"

Butch blinked in surprise at first but then nodded and said, "Yeah, you got it."

The boys fly straight up and stop about 300 feet above the tree tops. Butch then charges up a large energy ball and gets ready to let it fly when he sees the violet color of the monster's energy trail.

"BUTCH!" Brick shouts and points in the direction he saw the trail.

"I SAW IT BRICK!" Butch shouts back and throws the ball in the same direction.

* * *

 _Pokey Oaks, 300 pm._

All the kids were outside the school, waiting to be picked up by their parents. The Puffs could obviously fly home but they were visiting with a few of their friends before they took off.

"It looks like the storm is finally dying down a bit." Blossom observed, noticing that on the back edge of the storm, some sunlight could be seen.

"Finally!" Exclaimed Bubbles. "I don't like loud storms."

"You and me both Bubbles." Said Robyn.

"Pfffftttt, what are you two talking about?" Buttercup started. "I love strong storms. They really display Mother Nature's power."

Blossom shook her head, albeit good naturedly, and said, "You and your obsession with power Buttercup."

Buttercup just grinned.

"Well, personally, I don't mind strong storms as long as I'm watching them from inside my house." Said Mike Believe, another of the girls' friends.

"Yeah, that is a plus." Said Buttercup. "As much as I like strong storms, I don't like getting wet."

They all chuckled at that. Just then, a bright green flash filled the sky.

"Yikes, looks like the storm still has a few lightning flashes left!" Robyn yelled, but then she realized what color the flash was. "Hey, wait a minute. Is there such a thing as green lightning?"

"Uhh, if there is Robyn, it would be the first time I've ever heard of it." Blossom explained.

Then Mitch said from a few feet away, "Uhh, I don't think that was lightning." He said rather nervously. "It looks like somebody just nuked the forest!"

"What?!" The girls exclaimed. They, along with all of the kids, rushed over to where Mitch was standing and looked out towards the woods. A large mushroom cloud was rising above the tree line and a few seconds later, they heard the sound of the blast.

"Oh wow!" One child exclaimed.

"What happened?" Another asked.

The girls were asking themselves that very same question. What could possibly blow up with that much energy out in the middle of the woods. But then Buttercup realized something.

"Hey Blossom."

"Yeah Buttercup?"

"There was a green flash of light, right?"

"Yeah."

"And now there's a mushroom cloud out in the woods."

"Yeah...where are you going with this?"

"Blossom, the boys live out in the woods."

Blossom gasped. "Butch! Butch is the one who blew up the woods!"

"But why?" Bubbles asked. "Why would he blow up the forest?"

Just then, Robyn pointed out two color streaks leaving the blast site. "Hey look, there's a red and green streak coming from the blast!"

The girls look to where Robyn is pointing and sure enough, they see Brick and Butch flying at high speed toward the neighborhood.

"They're-they're flying towards the neighborhood. Why are they coming here?" Blossom asked.

"Hey, where's Boomer's streak?" Bubbles asked.

Buttercup used her supervision and saw that Brick was carrying Boomer over his shoulder. "Brick's carrying him Bubbles. It looks like he's hurt."

The boys continue flying further into the neighborhood, until they fly a couple hundred feet directly over head. Blossom then realizes where they're going.

"They're heading for our house! Girls, come on. Obviously something serious has happened."

The girls take off after the boys. After leaving the school and their friends, Buttercup asks the one question neither of them want to ask.

"You two don't think...the monster attacked them, do you?"

"Monster?" Bubbles asked.

"The monster that Dick Hardly created." Buttercup clarified.

Bubbles sucked in a breath.

Blossom looked at Buttercup in shock for a moment before looking back at the mushroom cloud that was still rising into the sky. She shook her head in worry, "Unless Butch just went stir crazy or something, I don't think there's any other explanation."

* * *

 **Chapter 11 is done, and the monster has made its debut. Now if you guys actually want to see the monster in action, type 'evolve stalker trailer' into google and watch the video. What happens in the video is what the boys went through.**

 **Please review. I love to read them.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Hey guys, sorry for taking so long again. I had the most insane case of writer's block, and Black Ops 3, Star Wars Battlefront, and, ultimately, Christmas shopping, didn't help either. Anyway, for those of you who don't know yet, the video game that I'm borrowing the monster from is called Evolve, and the monster itself is called the Wraith. Now in the game, the Wraith's powers are somewhat limited, and as such, the kids would easily destroy it if I portrayed it the way the game does, so I'm going to make it much stronger to give the kids an obstacle to overcome together.**

 **One more thing, the Wraith in the video I told you guys about is at its max potential; it's at stage 3 of its evolution. The Wraith that attacked the boys however is only at stage 1, and anyone who has played Evolve knows what I'm talking about. The basic premise of the game is to kill and eat things to gain strength and energy. Once the monster has eaten enough, it then evolves and gets bigger, as well as stronger, with each evolution. In other words, the boys were ambushed, and more or less, beaten, by the Wraith when it was at its weakest. So as the story goes on, it's only going to get harder for all of them. But, it also means that this story is going to culminate in one hell of a battle. Also, they don't know what the monster is called yet but I will write that in at some point in the story.**

 **Anyway, chapter 12.**

* * *

 _November 17, 3:03 pm_

Just as the girls land outside their house, they hear the Professor say, "Let's get Boomer downstairs to the lab."

Bubbles sucks in a breathe as Blossom opens the door and they see the boys soaking wet as well as battered and bruised. The Professor was holding an unconscious Boomer in his arms, Brick had a cut on his head somewhere since there was blood running down his face, and was missing his hat, and Butch's clothes were slightly torn and covered with mud and leaves like he had been dragged through the mud.

For a moment, the girls couldn't move. They were shocked to see the boys in the condition they were in, especially since out of all of the times they fought the boys, they could never truly harm them. The boys could harm them to the point where bruises and a few cuts would begin to appear, but the girls could never do the same to them.

The girls would've stayed still for a while longer if it wasn't for Bubbles noticing something particular about Boomer's arm.

"Boomer, your arm!" She shrieked.

This got the attention of Brick, Butch, and the Professor as well as snapping Blossom and Buttercup out of their shock. Bubbles raced over to get a better look at Boomer's arm and saw that it was not only bleeding but was also at an odd angle.

Bubbles stuttered in horror, "Wh-what happened?"

Blossom and Buttercup shut the door and came up as well, with Blossom saying, "Good question Bubbles."

Butch muttered in a low growl, "Dick Hardly's monster attacked us. That's what happened."

The girls turn toward Butch in shock.

"What?!" Asked Buttercup.

"Are you guys sure?" Asked Blossom.

"Yeah, we're sure Blossom." Said Brick which made Blossom turn back to him where she got a better look at the cut on his head and she flinched at the sight.

Blossom got a little closer and reached up to gently inspect it and asked, "I know this is a stupid question, but does it hurt?"

Brick scoffed. "Of course it hurts, I've got a cut on my head. Compared to what that thing did to Boomer however, it's nothing."

Blossom glanced at Boomer and noticed just how badly his arm was mangled and asked, "What did it do to him exactly?"

Brick's eye twitched and he looked down in pain as he remembered the scream Boomer let out. "It-it was trying to rip his arm off."

"WHAT?!" Bubbles shrieked.

Blossom covered her mouth is horror and Buttercup exclaimed, "It was trying to rip him apart?! Are you serious?!"

Brick just nodded his head solemnly. Blossom noted that Brick seemed to be particularly bothered by this but not just by the attempted mauling of his brother but something a bit deeper than that and she made a note to ask him about it later.

"Oh, it gets better girls." Butch said suddenly.

The girls turn back toward Butch.

"What do you mean?" Buttercup asked.

Butch gave a dry laugh. "You know that force field I can put up?"

"Yeah." Said Buttercup.

"Well, this thing...broke through it."

The girls and the Professor stared at Butch with their mouths hung open in shock.

"Wh-what? B-Butch, nothing...nothing has ever broken through your shield before!" Buttercup exclaimed. "Your shield even took one of our mega-blasts and the three of you were just sitting there with your arms crossed like 'is that all you've got?' How did this thing break through it?"

Butch just shook his head. "How do you think I feel? I don't know how it did it, it just pounded on it for several seconds with these scythe-blade claws it has and it made the shield crack before it finally broke." Butch pinched his eyebrows frustration. "If you really want to know how it broke through my shield Buttercup, you're going to have go out there and ask it."

Buttercup gave a nervous chuckle and said, "Uhh, yeah, no thanks."

"We can continue this discussion down in the lab kids, I need to get Boomer stabilized." The Professor suddenly said.

Everyone nodded in agreement and they went downstairs.

* * *

Once downstairs, Brick and Butch gave the girls a full, detailed description of the monster and what it was capable of as well as how it attacked them while the Professor stabilized Boomer and Blossom helped Brick bandage up the cut on his head.

"Great." Blossom muttered sarcastically. "So, in other words, we've got our work cut out for us?"

Brick chuckled, "Yeah, pretty much." Blossom finished wrapping Brick's head and he said, "Thanks."

Blossom nodded, "Sure."

"Alright, Boomer's going to be ok, he just needs to get some rest." Said the Professor.

Everyone breathes a sigh of relief.

"What about his arm Professor?" Bubbles asked.

"That might take a couple days to fully heal but, again, he will be fine."

Bubbles smiled hearing that.

"So, I guess we'll be staying here for awhile?" Butch asked.

Brick sighed. "Well, the monster destroyed Fuzzy's shack and until Boomer gets better we can't go anywhere anyway, so, yeah, we have to stay with the girls for awhile."

"Well, after Boomer fully recovers, I'm sure we can help you guys find a place to live in the city somewhere." Stated Blossom.

"I appreciate your offer Blossom, but I'm sure we could find a place to live on our own. I'm already thinking of a few places off the top of my head we could live in." Brick responded.

Blossom nodded. "Well, still, my offer stands if you change your mind."

Brick chuckled softly and said, "Thanks."

The sound of a stomach growling was then heard and everyone turned to Butch who was rubbing the back of his head. "Uhh, heh heh, I hate to be the one to ask this but, do you guys have anything to eat?"

Buttercup snickered at the comment to which Butch just gave her a small glare. The Professor looked up at the clock and it said 4:40. "Well, it is almost dinner time so I better start getting everything ready."

"Heh, sounds good." Said Butch.

Buttercup smirked. "Yeah, it'd be a shame if your stomach collapsed in on itself huh?"

Butch gave Buttercup a flat look and said, "Oh...shut up."

Buttercup chuckled and said, "Relax Butch, I'm hungry too. I'm just poking fun to try and lighten up the mood."

Butch blinked. "Oh."

Everyone else shook their heads as the Professor went upstairs to get dinner started.

* * *

After dinner, it was decided that the boys would sleep in the living room. The Professor got some extra pillows and blankets and set everything up while the girls discussed with Brick and Butch what they were going to do about the monster.

"Ok Brick, you're absolutely sure that you guys were able to injure the monster?" Blossom asked.

"We had to have done some kind of damage to the monster Blossom, otherwise it wouldn't have run off." Brick explained.

Blossom rubbed her chin. "I guess you have a point. If it could've beaten the three of you right then and there, then it wouldn't have retreated."

"At least we know we can hurt it." Added Buttercup.

"Yeah, and thank goodness for it." Said Blossom.

"So, what are we going to do now?" Asked Bubbles. "Are we going to search for it or are we going to wait for it to show itself?"

Blossom thought about it for a moment before saying, "Whatever we decide to do, we're going to wait until Boomer fully recovers from his injuries. That way, it'll be 6v1 when we fight it. We don't want to take any chances with this thing, we need to overpower and destroy it."

"I agree." Said Brick. "As much as I'm going to hate to admit it, we can't mess around with this thing." Brick rubbed his bandaged head as he continued. "Even if we were ready for it, I'm not so sure the outcome would've been that much different. We might have lessened Boomer's injuries a bit but I think that's all we would've been able to do."

Blossom nodded in agreement. "When Boomer fully recovers, we'll discuss a plan of attack of how we're going to do this. Agreed?"

Everyone nodded and said, "Agreed."

* * *

 _That night, around 11 pm._

Brick couldn't sleep very well, he kept hearing the scream Boomer let out when the monster was trying to rip off his arm in his dreams. He had never heard Boomer scream like that before. Sure the boys have grunted and even yelled slightly in pain when fighting the girls in the past but that was a given in any fight. The scream that Boomer let out while pinned by the monster however, was one of pure agony. It bothered Brick to no end hearing him scream like that but he didn't understand what it was that made it so horrible to hear. After sitting on the couch for a few minutes, he decided to get up and get a drink of water out of the kitchen.

After searching the cupboards for a moment, he found a small glass and filled it up. Just as he was about to take a sip he heard a voice behind him.

"Brick?"

Brick turned around and saw Blossom hovering in the doorway. "Oh, uhh, hey, Blossom."

"Why are you up?" She asked.

Brick shrugged, "I was a little thirsty. What about you?"

"I had to use the bathroom, but then I heard some movement down here so I came down to see what it was."

Brick nodded in understanding. Blossom noticed however that Brick seemed to be a bit troubled and remembered that he looked like this earlier in the afternoon when they were down in the lab getting Boomer stabilized.

"Are you ok Brick? You look like something is bothering you."

Brick blinked in surprise and glanced at Blossom out of the corner of his eye before he let out a dry chuckle and asked, "Am I that obvious right now?"

Blossom rubbed her head sheepishly and replied, "Kinda."

Brick sighed. "I'm having trouble sleeping. I keep hearing the scream that Boomer let out during the attack in my dreams."

Blossom's eyes widen. "Oh. So, you had a nightmare?"

"Yeah, more or less." Brick pauses, trying to figure out the best way to say what's on his mind. "We've never been in a situation like this before Blossom. Being attacked out of the blue like that, one of us almost being ripped limb from limb, getting backed into a corner and nearly overpowered. I mean, you and your sisters have beaten us of course, but it was because you out smarted us, not out muscled us. If a fight between the six of us ever boiled down to simply brute strength, we both know who would win."

Blossom sighed, knowing that Brick was right. "That is true, you're right."

Brick continued. "Anyway, because we've never been in a life of death situation like that, we've never had to take life seriously. We could just do whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted to. We felt indestructible because there wasn't anything that could truly harm us." Brick then chuckled. "Hell, we even had an unspoken rule; every Rowdyruff had to look out for himself. If you got yourself into trouble, you had to get yourself out of it." Brick rubbed his face at this point. "But after what happened earlier today..."

"...you can't mess around anymore. You have to take things seriously, and really look out for one another." Blossom finished for him.

Brick looked up at Blossom and nodded after a few seconds of silence and said, "Yeah."

Blossom floated over to Brick and sat down on the countertop next to him. "Well, even with the seriousness of the situation, we're still kids Brick, and the whole point of being a kid is the privilege of being care free. Having to deal with something as serious as this as a kid isn't right. I'm sure there's a way we can still live our normal lives and take this seriously at the same time."

Brick turned to Blossom with a sad smile, something she's still not used to seeing him display. "If I hadn't watched my little brother almost get ripped limb from limb, I'd completely agree with you on that one Blossom."

Blossom looked at Brick in pity. Whenever she and her sisters fought the boys, Blossom could always see a raging inferno in Brick's eyes when they fought, but now, it was anything but that. If anything, it looked like a fire that was about to go out. The image of his little brother being pinned to the ground and almost being ripped apart, unable to defend himself, had really struck a chord in him.

Brick went on. "I don't think I can relax, or be care free, again until I know that thing is dead."

Blossom tried to argue her point again, "Well, yes, obviously, we don't want to completely let our guard down until it's dead, but still, you guys could-"

"Blossom," Brick interrupted, "if it were Bubbles down in the lab instead of Boomer, would you still be saying this?"

Blossom stared at Brick for a few moments with her mouth hung slightly open in surprise before she sighed and brought her knees up to her chin and said, "No...most likely not."

"Look, Blossom, I understand what you're trying to do for me, and, believe it or not, I appreciate it, I really do." Blossom smiled. Brick went on. "But we can't let our guard down until it's dead. I'm not letting something like what happened to Boomer happen again."

Blossom nodded. "Of course not, but what I'm trying to explain is this; part of the reason Dick released this creature to come after us, is to control us through fear. I mean, I don't want to sound like I'm calling you out but, you would be giving Dick a partial victory in letting his creature force you into giving up doing things that would make you guys happy."

Brick sucked in a breath. Blossom had a point, that's exactly what they would be doing. Brick shook his head angrily and growled quietly to himself.

"Look," Blossom said suddenly causing Brick to look back at her, "if you guys truly managed to hurt it, then we'll have some time to work out how we're going to handle this safely. We will figure out a way to kill this thing as well as not let it control the way we live our lives. Ok?"

Brick chuckled to himself while shaking his head good naturedly and said, "Ya know, it's funny, I never thought in a million years I'd be listening to your advice." Blossom giggled at that after a moment of silence. Brick went on. "So, yeah, after what's happened, I think I can be open minded for a little while."

Blossom smiled. "Thank you."

Suddenly, there was a loud snarling noise coming from the living room, and both Blossom and Brick jumped at the volume and suddenness of it. When they looked to see what it was though, they saw Butch was lying in a somewhat awkward position and was snoring.

Brick sighed. "Damn it Butch. You and your snoring."

Blossom chuckled. "Wow, and I thought Buttercup snored loudly."

"There was a time Butch almost started an earthquake with his."

Blossom eyes widened in surprise. "Wait...really?"

Brick nodded. "Yeah, but fortunately, he rarely snores that loud."

Blossom sighed. "Oh, well, that's a relief."

After a brief pause, Brick turned toward Blossom and said, "Well, I'm going to try and go back to sleep now."

Blossom nodded and said, "Alright, see you in the morning."

Brick nodded in response as he floated back into the living room while Blossom went back upstairs.

* * *

 ***sigh* Ok, I am in a very slow period of writing right now you guys and I am so sorry. I wanted to keep the story on time with Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's but things kept popping up, I kept getting writers block, it's turned into a bit of a cluster. I don't know what the posting schedule even looks like anymore, but I will finish the story.**

 **So, on that note, hope you had a great Thanksgiving, a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Alright chapter 13**

* * *

 _November 18_

That morning, Blossom and Bubbles were awoken by a sudden loud noise. Sitting up in bed, they look around groggily for the source of the sound with Bubbles muttering, "Wha- *yawn* what was that sound?"

Blossom just shrugged while rubbing one of her eyes when they heard a sniffle next to them. They turn and see Buttercup rubbing her nose and having an apologetic look on her face. "Sorry guys. I just sneezed."

"You sneezed? That's what that was?" Bubbles asked surprised.

Blossom sighed. "You know something Buttercup? I think your sneezing may be louder than you snoring."

Buttercup bristled at that. "For the last time Blossom, I don't snore."

"If we could find a camcorder, we could prove it to you." Said Bubbles with a grin. Blossom giggled.

Buttercup growled, "Bite me you two."

Blossom shook her head. "Alright, alright, let's head downstairs and get some breakfast."

* * *

Upon reaching the bottom of the stairs, the girls hear a loud yawn coming from the living room. The girls turn and see Brick sitting up on the couch.

"Morning Brick. Sleep well?" Blossom asked.

Brick held up his hand and said, "Wait, hold that thought." Brick reached above his head with both arms and stretched until a loud crack came from his back and neck. "Ohhhhhh-ohhh-ohh-ohh-oh, that felt good."

The girls however flinched slightly at the sound and Blossom muttered under her breath, "UGH, boys."

Brick raised an eyebrow, "Huh? Oh, pffffttt, spare me Blossom." Blossom rolled her eyes. "Anyway," Brick continued, "to answer your question, I slept pretty well, all things considered."

Blossom was the only one who understood the true meaning of what Brick said since they did spend some time talking about it last night. Buttercup and Bubbles on the other hand, thought he was referring to sleeping on the couch.

"Yeah, a couch isn't the most comfortable thing to sleep on, is it?" Said Bubbles.

"Although, compared to Fuzzy's old furniture, it had to have been better than that." Said Buttercup.

Brick shrugged. "Eh, it wasn't unbearable, but yeah, your guys' couch is more comfortable than his bed." Brick then glanced to his right and blinked in slight surprise. "And if Butch is anything to go off of, so is the easy chair."

The girls glanced over to see Butch sleeping with his back arched over one of the arm rests, with his head hanging over the side and his arms dangling down past his head.

Bubbles shook her head. "Isn't he uncomfortable? How can he sleep like that?"

Brick snickered. "He's fallen asleep in stranger positions than that."

Blossom gave Brick a strange look and said, "Ok...can you give us an example?"

"There was this one time he was hanging upside down from a tree branch by his legs and he fell asleep."

The girls gave Brick a 'are-you-serious' look before glancing at Butch for a moment then turning back to Brick and Blossom responded, "Owwweeeee-kay. That's...something."

"Pffftt, you really want to see something? Watch this." Brick then floated over to Butch and straight up pushed him off of the arm rest, a loud thud following shortly after.

At first shocked, the girls gave Brick a mean glare before Blossom said, "Brick, what'd you do that for?!"

Brick just gave them a smirk and said, "What? I don't hear him complaining. Do you?"

It took a moment for the girls to realize it but Brick was right, Butch wasn't mad at Brick for pushing him off the chair. In fact, apart from slightly readjusting himself, he was still sound asleep.

"Wait...that didn't wake him up?" Buttercup asked amazed.

Brick chuckled. "Are you kidding Buttercup, the guy can sleep through an earthquake."

Bubbles then asked, "How do you wake him up if he's that sound of a sleeper then?"

Brick rubbed the back of his head before explaining. "We used to have to do something drastic, like, throw him in the lake."

"But wouldn't he drown from that?" Bubbles asked shocked.

Brick shook his head. "Naw, he woke up within two seconds. Although, to be fair, it wasn't without a drawback; it always pissed him off."

Blossom stiffened. "Brick, watch the language."

Brick looked at Blossom for a moment before saying, "Really?" Blossom gave a stern look as a response. Brick flinched, "Ok, ok, sorry."

Satisfied with that, Blossom went back to their original conversation. "So, you **used** to throw Butch into the lake. What was this new method you discovered for waking him up?"

Brick shrugged. "Eh, Boomer was actually the one who figured this out, and considering how simple it is, it was his first true stroke of genius."

The girls glance at one another for a moment before Bubbles asks, "What did Boomer do?"

Brick just smirked, kneeled down next to Butch and said, "Hey Butch, wake up, there's a triple decker, bacon, cheese burger in the kitchen with your name on it."

Butch's eyes fly open and he sits up so fast that he knocks Brick over and says, "ALRIGHT, FOOD! LET'S EAT!" Butch looks around quickly for a moment until he hears a groan on his left. When he turns toward it, he sees Brick lying on his back, rubbing his head. "Oh, hey Brick. What happened to you?"

Brick growled. "Why do you even have ears? You listen better with your stomach!"

Butch raised an eyebrow. "Huh? Wait, what's that supposed to mean?"

Before Brick could answer, they both heard some snickering. Turning towards it, the boys see the girls trying really hard not to crack up at Butch's reaction but burst out laughing a moment later.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Blossom managed to compose herself long enough to say, "Well, that was...interesting." Before she went back to laughing.

Butch turned toward Brick with a confused look on his face and asked, "Did I miss something?"

Brick face palmed in response and said, "Ugh, never mind."

"Ah, glad to see everybody's up." A voice suddenly said from behind the girls. Everyone turned and saw the Professor closing the lab door behind him.

Seeing the professor, Brick and Butch are immediately reminded of Boomer and ask in unison, "How's Boomer doing?"

The Professor held up his hands and said, "He's doing fine. His wounds are healing wonderfully and I expect him to wake up sometime later today."

"Really?" Everyone asked this time.

The Professor nodded. "Yes. If anything, I believe Boomer is merely resting now."

Everyone let out a sigh of relief. The Professor looked at the clock on the wall and said, "Alright, since everybody's up, I'll start breakfast."

* * *

After Breakfast, which consisted of pancakes, bacon and eggs, which Brick and Butch admitted was actually good, the girls were just about to head off to school.

"Alright girls, have a good day at school." Said the Professor.

"We will. Bye!" All three sisters said in unison and flew off.

After they left, the Professor went back downstairs into the lab to check on Boomer and saw Brick and Butch sitting on a nearby table watching their brother's chest rise and fall.

 _'When things are serious, they really can show sympathy and compassion.'_ He thought. Even though the girls explained everything that happened on Halloween in detail, he still had trouble visualizing the boys acting like that. But here they were, right now, watching their brother's condition with obvious concern.

The Professor walked over. "Boys," the boys flinched slightly, not realizing the Professor had come down stairs, "I can keep an eye on Boomer if you two want to do something else to help you pass the time. I'm confident that he's going to wake up today."

Brick and Butch glance at each other for a moment before turning back, with Brick saying, "Thanks Professor. We'll consider that, but, I think we'll be down here for a little while."

The Professor nodded. "Of course."

* * *

On their way to school, the girls discuss what they're going to say when their classmates ask about what happened yesterday.

"We're obviously **NOT** going to mention Dick Hardly's connection with the monster. That's still on a need to know basis." Blossom explained.

"Yeah, no kidding," Buttercup said, "besides, if we can find and kill it quick enough, we'll never have to explain that part. Everybody in class was already horrified enough with what he did to us on Halloween, we don't need to add, he created a monster to come after us to it."

Blossom nodded. "Exactly."

"But what are we going to tell them?" Bubbles asked. "I mean, between Butch putting on that light show when he blew up the forest and the fact that he and Brick flew directly over the school, low enough to the ground that we could tell they were carrying Boomer, the first question out of everybody's mouth when we float into class is going to be, 'What happened?'"

Blossom thought about it for several seconds and came up with a solution. "Ok, here's what we're going to say."

* * *

 **As much as you guys are going to hate me for this, after another long wait, I'm going to end the chapter here. I plan to have a lot of things happen in the next chapter which means it will be longer than this one.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14...again, sorry for the long wait. Between life, several good video games that had come out, and a period of time where I just didn't care about this story in general, it's been...difficult. But, I think I've gotten through that now, so hopefully, I'll be able to get the next chapter out much sooner than this one.**

* * *

Mere moments after floating into class, the girls were bombarded with questions about what happened.

"Guys, settle down," Blossom said over the ruckus, "we're going to explain what happened, or at least everything we know so far."

Everyone calmed down, waiting for Blossom to explain. Before she started however, she gave Bubbles and Buttercup a knowing glance and they subtly nodded back remembering how they were going to explain the situation without mentioning Dick Hardly's involvement. Blossom took a deep breath, and began.

"The short version of what happened, is that the RRB were ambushed by an unusual, but very powerful monster. The massive explosion was Butch trying to kill the monster after they had survived the attack."

"Wait, a monster? That's all?" Robyn asked. "But, you guys fight monsters all the time."

Blossom nodded. "Yes Robyn, **WE** do, but the boys don't. They don't fight them on a nearly daily basis like we do, they only fight monsters when they're incredibly bored, and even so, going off of the boys' description of the one that attacked them, I don't think we would've faired much better."

Everyone in the room gave the girls a stunned look and Ms. Keane asked, "How do you figure that girls?"

Buttercup picked up the discussion here. "When you all think of the monsters that attack Townsville, what's the one thing they usually all have in common?"

After a brief moment of silence, Mike Believe said, "They're usually very big. Giants."

Buttercup nodded at Mike, "Exactly. Now, according to the boys, the monster that attacked them couldn't have been more than 10-11 feet tall."

"What?!" One child exclaimed.

"They were beaten by something that small, that wasn't the three of you?" Said another.

"Guys, for as small as it is, it's incredibly powerful." Blossom stated. "Of all the times we've fought the boys, we would be lucky if we bruised them, and that's in the fights that lasted close to an hour. This thing..." Blossom shook her head in slight disbelief at this point, she was still having trouble accepting that this creature could be this dangerous, "...this thing drew blood and broke bone in less than two minutes."

A heavy silence permeated the room. Two minutes, less than two minutes actually, and the RRB were injured that much?

"How badly were they hurt, Blossom?" Asked Ms. Keane.

"Boomer got the worst of it, Brick had a bad gash on his head, as well as several cuts and scrapes, and Butch was more or less just badly bruised; both physically and his ego."

Ms. Keane gave Blossom a questioning look. "His ego?"

Blossom nodded, but Buttercup explained. "You guys know that force field power that Butch has?" Everybody nodded. "Well, his ego got bruised when the monster broke it."

Everyone was stunned. "Wait, I thought that force field thing of his was unbreakable?" Said Mike.

"Yeah, so did we." Said Buttercup. "It can take one of our Mega-blasts, no problem, but this thing just hammers on it for a few seconds, and it breaks."

"How did this thing hurt them that badly, that fast, when you can't though?" Asked Robyn.

The girls looked at each other for a moment. They knew exactly why it could; because Dick Hardly bio-engineered this creature with Chemical-X, but they agreed not to mention that unless it was absolutely necessary, which meant the girls would only give them half of the truth. "We don't know that yet, but we do know part of the reason is because the monster split them up." At everyone's slightly puzzled look, Blossom elaborated. "The monster didn't fight all three of them at once, it went out of its way to separate them before it did any harm and, according to Brick, it seemed to be aware of what it was doing, which means it's intelligent. It's aware of its own strengths and weaknesses and attacked them in such a way that would play to its strengths and put the boys at a disadvantage." Blossom paused to take a breath before she recounted the attack the boys gave them. "When the monster ambushed them, it grabbed Boomer and then flew away as quickly as it could. Brick told Butch to fly above the tree line to try and cut it off while he continued chasing it through the trees. But just as he caught up with the monster in a clearing, is when it began trying to rip Boomer's arm off." Everyone gasped in horror.

"The monster was trying to rip him apart?!" Ms. Keane exclaimed.

Blossom nodded. "Yeah. He ended up with a badly dislocated shoulder and was actually bleeding pretty badly as well, and Brick saw this happen too and it really affected him. Anyway, Brick blasted the monster off of Boomer and it retreated for a moment, but it came back almost immediately and blindsided them, knocking them into a cliff. Butch flew in at that point and managed to beat it back for a moment with a few energy blasts to its face until it apparently got angry and just charged Butch, forcing him to put up his force field, which the monster eventually broke through somehow and knocked Butch back with Brick and Boomer. They were finally able to overpower it when all three of them attacked it at once, but even then, the monster just stumbled slightly, flew up to a ridge that was behind them, roared in anger, and then just flew away. So even when they beat it, it seemed to be nothing more than an inconvenience for the creature."

"The explosion," Buttercup picked up, "came from Butch after they had flown above the trees. Brick told him to nuke the forest in an effort to kill this thing right then and there, but Butch doesn't know if he killed it or not."

"Why did they go to your house though?" Asked Mike.

"Because the Professor is the only one who could help them right now." Said Bubbles, speaking for the first time. "Mojo technically hasn't been the boys' 'Father' ever since HIM brought them back to life, not to mention we just threw Mojo in jail after the whole, 'robbing-the-mint' fiasco, and we just recently found out that after what happened on Halloween, HIM basically disowned the boys for not even trying to destroy us after that whole thing with Dick Hardly, so they really had no choice other than to come to us for help."

"So the boys are going to stay with you for a while then girls?" Asked Ms. Keane.

"Yes. At least until Boomer is fully healed anyway. When we left for school this morning, Boomer was still asleep but the Professor expects him to wake up sometime today." Said Blossom. "Having said that, once he has fully healed, all six of us are going to check to see if Butch actually managed to kill the monster when he nuked the forest."

"What if he didn't?" Asked Mitch Mitchelson.

"Then we're going to look for it. Something that can inflict more damage to them in less than 2 minutes, than we can in an hour, is something we're not going to take lightly." Explained Blossom.

* * *

After school, the girls would normally go out on patrol but because they wanted to know if Boomer had come around yet, Bubbles especially, they went home instead.

Once they get inside, Blossom sees Brick on the couch eating the last bite of a sandwich. "Hi Brick."

"Huh? Oh, hey." Brick responds.

"Isn't it a little bit early to be having dinner already?"

Brick shrugged. "Well, yeah I guess, but this isn't really dinner, it's more of a snack. Butch and I lost track of time waiting for Boomer to wake up and ended up skipping lunch."

"Oh, I see." Said Blossom.

"Hey," asked Bubbles, "how is Boomer?"

Brick gave a half smile and said, "How 'bout you ask him yourself." As he pointed toward the kitchen.

The girls turn and see Butch sitting at the kitchen table giving them a little wave while leaning back in the chair and Boomer with a content look on his face and an empty plate.

"Boomer!" Bubbles cried happily.

At first startled at hearing his name shouted, Boomer returned the greeting. "Oh, hey Bubbles."

Bubbles giggled and quickly floated over to Boomer with the intent of giving him a big hug. Boomer recognized this almost immediately, however, and stopped her. "Whoa! Bubbles, wait, my shoulder still hurts! Remember?!"

Bubbles froze less than a foot from Boomer before backing away a little, covering her mouth in shock, saying, "Eep! That's right, I'm so sorry!"

Boomer breathed a sigh of relief.

"Geez Bubbles," said an exasperated Blossom, "I know you're glad to see him awake and all, but seriously!"

"I know, I know, I'm sorry. It slipped my mind." Bubbles said with remorse.

Everyone let out a sigh. Then Butch said, "Putting aside Bubbles' momentary lapse in judgement, I just remembered something. Now that she's here, maybe she can use that healing power of hers that she showed us on Halloween to fix Boomer's shoulder." Butch paused for a moment, then cheekily added, "Then she can give him that bone crushing hug."

Everyone blinked in slight surprise at that last part and Brick asked, "Dude, why does she have to still give him the hug?"

Butch shrugged and said, "Eh, anything that would make Boomer look uncomfortable."

Brick cracked up. "Pffffttttt, alright. Fair point."

Butch chuckled.

Boomer on the other hand gave them both a dry look. "Oh, why don't the two of you go play in traffic."

Blossom sighed. "Alright, knock it off. Joking aside, I think Butch has a good idea."

"What, making Boomer uncomfortable?" Asked Buttercup with a grin.

"What?...NO! Healing Boomer's shoulder!" Said Blossom angrily.

Buttercup snickered. "Sorry, I couldn't resist."

Boomer rolled his eyes at that. He then noticed Bubbles' less than amused expression and crossed arms and whispered, "Let me guess, you catch flak for being the 'youngest' sibling too."

Bubbles glanced at Boomer, saying, "Yeah, must be one of the 'perks' of being the baby of the family."

Boomer gave a dry chuckle. "'Perk.' Right."

"Alright," Blossom muttered tiredly, "if we're done making jokes, let's let Bubbles heal Boomer's shoulder."

"Thank you Blossom." Said Bubbles.

Bubbles went over to the sink and turned on the faucet. She caught the water in and around her hand, which began glowing when she activated her power. Floating back over to Boomer, she carefully placed her hand on Boomer's and let out a slow, meditative breath as she focused her energy. After a few moments, Bubbles was finished and moved back a little to allow Boomer to move his arm.

"How's it feel Boomer? Better?"

"It does feel a lot better Bubbles, thanks. It's just stiff right now is all."

"Well, that doesn't surprise me too much." Said the Professor as he walked in. "With the amount of damage you took, you were going to have to do some rehab in order to fully recover."

"Rehab?" Asked Boomer. "What's that?"

"Basically, it's doing some simple exercises to help your muscles and tendons stretch out and heal properly." Explained the Professor.

"Oh." Said Boomer. Then he asked, "Is that something I really need to do?"

The Professor nodded. "Yes, it is. If you don't, you could lose some mobility in your arm."

Boomer flinched at that, saying, "Oh, well, uh...in that case, yeah, sure, let's do that."

"I'll help you with that Boomer." Bubbles said happily.

Boomer glanced at Bubbles with a confused expression. "Huh?"

Bubbles flinched. "Uh...I mean, if you want my help that is." She said a bit more gingerly.

Boomer thought about it for a moment. Thinking back to the day when he and his brothers found one of Mojo's AA droned up on a building and having it blow up in their faces, she had offered to help him up off the ground but he turned down her offer. That sad look and solemn tone she had made him quickly add a 'thanks for asking' which did perk her up a little bit. But now that he thought about it, why had he done that? Was it because Bubbles looking sad actually bothered him? He shook his head slightly which Bubbles and the others took notice of.

"You ok there Boomer?" Asked Blossom.

"Yeah, what was that?" Asked Brick.

Boomer waved it off. "Oh, nothing. I was just thinking." Boomer turned to address Bubbles. "Uh, to answer your question, as long as you promise not to be overenth-uh...overenthsi-umm...what's the word?"

"Overenthusiastic?" Said Blossom.

"Yeah, that's it. As long as you promise not to be overenthusiastic, then, yeah, you can help me Bubbles."

Bubbles smiled. "Really?"

Boomer gave a small smile back, while rubbing his head, and said, "Sure."

Bubbles giggled. "Alright, deal."

Butch looked back and forth between Boomer and Bubbles with a raised eyebrow and glanced at Brick for an explanation. Brick just shrugged his shoulders as a response.

"Excellent." Said the Professor. "Bubbles' healing power may also help keep the swelling in your shoulder down as your working it so it won't be as sore at the end of each session."

"Alright, that sounds good." Said Boomer.

"After you're fully healed Boomer, all six of us are heading out into the woods to see if Butch managed to kill the thing that attacked you guys." Said Blossom.

Boomer looked a little nervous at the idea at first but then nodded in response saying, "Alright, I wouldn't mind getting a little bit of payback if we find that thing."

"Yeah, that's the spirit," said Brick, "teach that thing to mess with us."

Boomer smirked at that, and Butch gave a grin in response as well.

"Now, now, one step at a time boys." Said Blossom. "Let's have Boomer fully heal first before we think about revenge, okay?"

The boys think for a moment before responding in unison, "Deal."

* * *

Over the next few days, Bubbles helped Boomer with his shoulder. Helping him with stretching it out a little more each time and using her healing powers to ease the swelling when they were done.

"I think we're almost done Boomer." Said Bubbles happily. "You're hardly flinching anymore when you move your arm around now."

"Yeah, you're right. We might be ready to take the monster on sooner than we thought."

Bubbles paused at that for a moment before asking, "Are you really that eager to go after it already? Even after what it did to you guys? You especially?"

Boomer looked at Bubbles, who had a slightly concerned expression, before saying, "Well, if you're asking, am I afraid to go back out there and face it, yeah, I am a little bit. Even though it caught us off guard, it wiped the floor with us way too easily, and that's scary." He thought for a moment before continuing. "But, at the same time, I don't want to be fearful of simply going outside or having a constant fear of whether or not this thing would attack us again."

Bubbles gave Boomer a small smile and said, "Yeah, that wouldn't be very fun, would it? Not being able to live life the way you want."

Boomer nodded. "Yeah. I am afraid, but I also want some payback. It didn't just hurt me after all. Sure, I got the worst of it, but Brick was hurt too and Butch's ego took a big hit when that thing broke his shield."

Bubbles smiled again. "So you want some payback for your brothers too?"

Boomer nodded.

Still smiling, Bubbles said, "You'll all get a chance for that payback Boomer, don't worry."

Boomer smirked. "Oh, I know we will."

* * *

Blossom and Brick were sitting in the living room, coming up with ways to fight the creature if it was still alive.

"So far," Said Blossom, "the only x-factor we really need to be concerned about, that I can see anyway, is that it can teleport. Do you agree, Brick?"

"Yeah, that's right...or some form of teleportation anyway. When it does 'teleport', it doesn't just simply disappear. Its energy trail connects the point in which it disappears and the point it reappears. So, technically, you can tell which way it went because its energy trail is visible, but it moves at such a blindingly fast speed, that by the time you turn in that direction, it's already in your face."

"Ok, so taking that into consideration, what would be the best way to fight this thing?"

"I think the only safe way to fight it, is if at least one of us has eyes on it at all times." Said Brick.

"Ok. How though?" Asked Blossom.

"I don't know, but all of us attacking it, close quarters, at once, would be the worst thing we could do, because once it teleports away, it would be able to hit all six of us in one go."

Blossom nodded in agreement, saying, "Yeah, that's a good point." Rubbing her chin for a moment, Blossom snapped her fingers and said, "Ok then, how about this? Since there's six of us, maybe three of us, two at the least, would hang back and hit this thing at range, so that way, when this thing does teleport, the two that are hanging back will have a wider field of view to see where this thing went. If the thing teleports behind them, then at least one of the other four will be able to spot it and warn them. Does that sound good to you Brick?"

"Hmmm...Yeah. Yeah, that sounds good. Four of us in its face, the other two hang back, and we can rotate out who hangs back whenever it teleports too. So if it does manage to teleport away, worst case scenario, if no one can spot it in time, it'll only be able to blindside some of us. Then those of us it didn't blindside, can blindside it."

"Well, if we do it right, the only one getting blindsided will be the creature." Said Blossom with a smile.

Brick smirked. "Well then, we'll call that the best case scenario."

Blossom chuckled.

* * *

Standing back to back in a post-apocalyptic Townsville, Butch and Buttercup were staring down the large horde of alien-like creatures that had them completely surrounded. The creatures were of varying shapes and sizes from something that only reached waist high on a full grown human, to creatures that could contend with an elephant or rhino, ones that could shoot acid from their tails, and even ones that could fly and shoot spikes from their tails. All of them had gray colored carapace, which is a hard outer shell covering most of their bodies, but there was some variation of color in the form of glowing eyes and mouths. The colors ranged from orange, to red, to yellow, to blue, and the creatures had five eyes; two eyes stacked on top of one another on either side of their heads and the fifth eye in the middle of their foreheads. They also had double-jaws, almost mandibles, for their bottom jaws.

The creatures growled at Butch and Buttercup in slight frustration. They had the numbers but they couldn't pin them down long enough to cause any real damage.

Grinning ear to ear, Buttercup turned to Butch and asked, "So Butch, having fun?"

Butch responded by cackling slightly to himself and said, "Are you kidding? Of course I am. This training room thing you guys have is like a giant video game."

Butch saw Buttercup float downstairs into the lab a little while ago. Upon following her, he saw her fiddling with a large console before a room lit up to her left. Curious, he asked what it was and she explained that it was a holo-deck training simulator. At first a little confused, Buttercup explained how it worked; you enter in what you want to fight, how much of a challenge you want, and just push play.

The two greens had been fighting for the last 15 minutes against steadily increasing odds as more and more of them attacked at once as well as bigger and tougher enemies too. One type of monster was no bigger than a rhino but was every bit as stubborn and could take so much punishment, that Butch and Buttercup had to tag-team it in order to do enough damage to kill it...but now there was five of them, along with several dozen of the smaller ones, all around them, ready to pounce.

"Ok Butch, I have an idea."

"Yeah? What is it?"

"When they pounce at us, throw up your shield and let them crowd around us. Then push out with your shield just enough to give us an opening to fly straight up. Once we're up high enough, we'll bombard them into oblivion. Sound good?"

"Sound good? That sounds perfect." Said Butch with a wicked grin on his face.

Buttercup returned the grin, saying, "I thought you'd like that." The creatures sprang forward. "Ready?"

"Ready."

Just as the first creatures were within striking range, Butch threw up his shield and all of them came to a sudden stop, held at bay by the shield. No more than two seconds later, Butch pushed out his shield's perimeter enough to make an opening and he and Buttercup flew up through it. Once high enough, they turned and Buttercup said, "Light 'em up!"

Butch and Buttercup then preceded to rain death down upon the alien scourge below them. A full minute of laser fire went by before they stopped, and when the smoke cleared, there was virtually nothing left of the aliens.

 _ **"Simulation complete."**_ Said a computerized voice. The demolished downtown area of Townsville faded away and Butch and Buttercup were left floating in an empty, white, room.

"Woooooo, that was awesome!" Exclaimed Butch.

Buttercup chuckled. They floated over to the door, opened it, and exited. Buttercup grabbed a water bottle and tossed another to Butch.

"So, how often do you guys use this thing?"

Buttercup shrugged. "Usually two or three times a month, ranging from putting out a huge fire, to stopping a bank robbery, to fighting a monster, and everything in between."

Butch raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Oh, so you guys can program literally anything into this?"

Buttercup nodded. "Yup."

"Nice."

Buttercup rolled her eyes good naturedly.

"So, what's the hardest difficulty setting this thing has?" Asked Butch.

Buttercup shrugged, "It depends. Obviously, if all three of us are in there at once, we can take on higher difficulties together than if we were to go solo, but, it can be cranked up high enough to give the three of us a real challenge if we want to."

Butch chuckled, but then raised an eyebrow as a thought occurred to him. "Has this simulator been one of the reasons why you three have been able to keep pace with us for so long?"

Buttercup stopped for a moment to think about it before replying with a shrug, "You know, I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be. I mean, we've never programmed it to fight the three of you before, but it can simulate fights that are just as difficult as fighting the three of you."

"Hm." Butch hummed in understanding. Then he paused as another thought occurred to him. "Hey Buttercup."

"Yeah?"

"You think this thing can simulate the creature that attacked us out in the woods?"

Buttercup looked at Butch in surprise. "What? Well, I'm sure it could, but why would you want to do that?"

"Well, for practice. It'd be too dangerous to learn how to fight this thing in real life, right?"

Buttercup thought about what Butch had just said and started nodding in agreement. "You know, that's not a bad idea. Let's find the Professor and tell him."

Butch nodded and both he and Buttercup floated out of the lab.

* * *

After explaining Butch's idea to the Professor, he nodded in approval. "Yes, that would be a good idea. The only problem with this though is that it would be a very specialized simulation and those require specific data points for it to be accurate."

"So, in other words, you'd have to see this thing in action before you could program the training simulator?" Asked Butch.

"In short, yes, but that would be the bare minimum. What would be best is if I could measure its strength, speed, defenses, and anything else with my equipment." Then he thought about another way and added, "Or maybe retrieving a DNA sample so I could break it down and see exactly how it's put together and exploit a weakness."

"Oh." Said Butch.

"It's still a good idea Butch." Said Buttercup. Butch gave Buttercup a small smirk.

The others were sitting on the couch nearby while Butch and Buttercup proposed this idea to the Professor. They all agreed that Butch had a good idea but with the Professor explaining that it wouldn't be as easy as punching in a few values and hitting 'PLAY', they were a little disheartened now. Then Blossom thought of something.

"Maybe we can find some trace of the monster when we look for it tomorrow."

Everyone turned toward Blossom.

"Wait, we're going to go looking for it tomorrow?" Brick asked.

Blossom nodded. "Might as well. Boomer's fully healed now, so it'll be six on one if it is still alive. Also, we could use the opportunity to find some of its DNA for the Professor to analyze."

Everyone looked at each other for a moment before nodding in agreement.

"Alright, when should we be ready to go tomorrow?" Boomer asked.

"Tomorrow's a Monday, so we have to go to school first." Stated Blossom. "Although, I might be able to convince Ms. Keane to let us go a couple hours early. Maybe some time around noon rather than 3, because I doubt we'll find anything right away. It could take us a few hours and, I don't know about the rest of you, but I wouldn't want to be out in the woods with that thing lurking around somewhere after it gets dark."

The boys had a slightly nervous look on their faces at the idea of fighting this thing in the dark and Brick said, "Uhh, yeah, let's not do that." Butch and Boomer nod their heads in agreement as do Bubbles and Buttercup.

"Alright girls, while you're at school, I'll make a few preparations with the boys. After that, they'll meet you at the school and the six of you can go looking for this thing."

"Sounds like a plan." Responded Blossom.

* * *

 **Again, sorry for the long wait. It shouldn't take me nearly as long to post the next chapter.**

 **Also, in case you were wondering, Butch and Buttercup were fighting the Cryptids from Call of Duty: Ghosts' Extinction mode. Say what you will about that game, I thought Extinction mode was more fun than Zombies. I played it almost as much as Multiplayer.**


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15.**

* * *

 _November 23._

 _Pokey Oaks Kindergarten, 930am._

After coming in to class and explaining the situation to Ms. Keane, the girls were given permission to leave early to search for the monster that attacked the boys. At first surprised that the girls would be working with the boys on anything, remembering how this one creature was able to hurt them so badly, especially in Boomer's case, they couldn't blame them.

"So, what's the plan going to be for you guys later today?" Asked Robyn.

"The Professor and the boys are getting a few things ready back at the house right now so that we can head straight out into the woods once they get here." Explained Blossom.

"Wait, here?" Asked Robyn hesitantly. "As in, here at school?"

"Yeah. The boys are supposed to meet us here around 1 o'clock and then we can head out. That way, we have a couple more hours of daylight because **none** of us want to look for this creature out in the woods when it's dark out." While Robyn could agree with Blossom on that last part, she was still a little nervous about seeing the boys again. After all, when they saw her on Halloween, they did give her a somewhat uncomfortable grin upon noticing her crossing the street to avoid them. Noticing this, Blossom reassured her friend. "Don't worry Robyn, nothing bad will happen. In fact, and I can't believe I'm going to say this but, after everything that has happened, I'm almost positive that they aren't as evil as we once thought they were. They just need a little push in the right direction and, at the very least, we could coexist peacefully."

Robyn looked at Blossom in surprise. "You really think that's possible?"

Blossom nodded. "It's a long shot I know, but I think it is, yes."

Robyn shrugged and said, "Well, good luck to you on that part."

"Thanks."

* * *

Back at the girls' house, the Professor and the boys were getting a few things ready. Currently, the Professor was building mini cameras for all the kids to wear so that he could record from all six of their perspectives. If that creature was alive, and the kids did come across it, he wanted as much footage of the beast to analyze as possible.

On the other side of the lab, the boys were fiddling with some test tubes. "Why do we need to take these test tubes with us again?" Asked Boomer.

The Professor looked up from his work. "If you don't come across the creature itself, you'll more than likely still come across something that it has touched or eaten. The test tubes are for placing whatever genetic material you all find out there."

"Wait, so we can use anything this creature has touched for that?" Asked Brick. "I always figured you would need a drop blood to do anything in terms of genetics."

"You're right Brick," stated the Professor, "a blood sample would be the best thing to analyze from a genetic standpoint, but I could still learn a great deal about this creature's genetic makeup from something like saliva on a recently eaten carcass, or a claw fragment."

"Claw fragment?" Asked Butch. "As in, my blast didn't necessarily kill it but maybe blew off one of its hands or something like that?"

The Professor nodded. "Yes."

"Ok, so something physical that you can study and the cameras are so that you can see exactly how this thing moves and fights?" Asked Brick who wanted to boil the task down into simple terms.

The Professor nodded again. "Precisely."

"Alright. Simple enough." Responded Brick.

The Professor looked up at the clock and saw that it was getting close to 1 o'clock. "Alright boys, by the time I finish this last camera, it'll be close to 1. Now, before I forget, inside that green hard case over there on the other table, is a Chemical-X detector. You guys can use it to hopefully track the creature or, at the very least, it can give you advanced warning if anything comes toward you."

"Wait, won't it just pick up the six of us?" Asked Butch as he moved over to the case in question and opened it.

"Yes, it will, but I've modified it. It has a radar screen now, so the six of you will show up on it, but as long as you all stay in a group, you'll know which signature is which and if a seventh signature pops up on the screen..." The Professor left the sentence open for one of the boys to finish.

"We'll know what it is." Finished Boomer with a determined but slightly wavering tone of voice.

Brick, Butch, and the Professor noticed Boomer's tone of voice and could tell he was still nervous.

"Don't worry bro," said Butch, "we know it's going to be out there so there's no way it's going to catch us off guard like it did last time, we're going to have a radar device that'll let us know if it's getting close, and, to top it all off, there's going to be six of us it'll have to deal with. If it's even half as intelligent as we think it is, it wouldn't dare attack us."

Brick nodded. "I actually have to agree with Butch on this. Especially that last part. With the six of us together, looking in all directions, even if it does try to attack us, there's no way it can catch us off guard."

"I agree with you boys, more than likely it won't." Stated the Professor. "However, you should never assume anything. Underestimating your adversary is the worst mistake a fighter can make. When you're out there, you can't afford to let your guard down. If not for your own safety, but you could jeopardize the safety of everyone else around you. If you get caught off guard, whoever's next to you can get attacked as well because they could be looking for this creature in the other direction."

The boys glance at each other as they take in the consequences of that scenario. "Alright, that's a fair point." Said Brick.

Just then, the phone rang and the Professor got up from his work to answer it.

"So, if this thing is still alive, you guys think we really have a chance to kill it with all six of us together?" Boomer asked.

"Oh yeah, definitely." Said Butch with a grin.

"I think so too." Said Brick. "However, the Professor made a good point. We don't want to assume it'll be a push over just because there will be six of us it'll have to deal with. After all, we know exactly how powerful this thing is because we've already fought it. If anything, and I can't believe I'm going to say this, but the girls might be the ones who'll be overconfident when dealing with this thing. Despite seeing Boomer's injuries and our description of this thing, 6v1 can make anybody overconfident."

Boomer nodded. If there was only going to be one of them who wouldn't dare underestimate this thing, it was him. After all, Butch had his shield shattered, Brick received a few cuts, but Boomer was nearly ripped limb from limb. He is the only one who truly knows how deadly this thing really is. He still had some nasty flashbacks every now and then of how helpless he felt in that creature's grasp, especially when it pinned him to the ground and started to pull at his arm with its teeth and claws.

"It'll be kind of weird that we'll be the ones advising the girls on how to fight something, don't you think?" Asked Butch.

Brick and Boomer looked at Butch upon hearing that. He was right. Up until now, the girls were the ones who've had all the experience fighting monsters but this time, they'll have to take ques, or perhaps even orders, from them in order to keep themselves safe.

"That'll be...interesting." Said Brick. "Particularly Blossom."

The boys chuckled a little at that although not in a mean way.

"Are you certain about that Mayor?" The Professor's voice suddenly said. The boys look over to where the Professor was still on the phone with a slightly worried look on his face. After a few seconds of silence, the Professor sighed and said, "Alright, thank you for the update. I'll let them know and we'll report back with anything we find. Goodbye Mayor." The Professor hung up and pinched his brow in an attempt to ease a headache.

"What's up?" Asked Brick.

The Professor looked over at the boys and said, "Well, we don't have to determine whether or not the creature is still alive anymore."

The boys went wide eyed at that.

"What?" Asked Butch.

"We don't?" Said Boomer.

"No. There's a power station out in the woods a few miles from Dick's lab and a couple of the workers out there saw a violet, almost white, energy trial streaking through the trees. It is very much alive." Said the Professor.

"Oh, great." Said Boomer.

"Well, at least we won't have to spend energy determining whether or not it's dead now. We know it's alive so we can focus more on finding it." Said Butch.

"Yes," responded the Professor, "but there is one other thing you need to know about."

"What's that?" Asked Brick.

The Professor looked uneasy and the boys had a feeling they weren't going to like what they were about to hear.

* * *

 **Yay, another chapter. I know I've been really spotty with updates lately. At first it was because some good games came out, including the Battlefield 1 open beta, but now I'm trying to get used to a new job and the hours don't leave me with much 'me' time afterward. I'm slowly getting back into things here but there will still be some delays in posting these chapters in the future.**


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